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	union_n	11,677	5	9.6253	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80530	Experience, historie, and divinitie Divided into five books. Written by Richard Carpenter, vicar of Poling, a small and obscure village by the sea-side, neere to Arundel in Sussex. Who being, first a scholar of Eaton Colledge, and afterwards, a student in Cambridge, forsooke the Vniversity, and immediatly travelled, in his raw, green, and ignorant yeares, beyond the seas; ... and is now at last, by the speciall favour of God, reconciled to the faire Church of Christ in England? Printed by order from the House of Commons.	Carpenter, Richard, d. 1670?	1641 (1641)	Wing C620B; ESTC R229510	263,238	607

thus many why stay I there many thousands were saved of whom we never heard And the like hapned saith Saint Austin in the Deluge For many being convinced in their judgements by seeing the Prophecie of the Floud to become History repented of their sinnes against God whom Noah had taught to be the Author of the Prophecie and beleeving imbraced their present destruction as a just punishment for their sins and having been justified by a lively faith were saved God did not take al into the number of his people because his people had not beene so properly his without an exclusion of others and because hee would more endeare himselfe to those whom hee tooke as likewise his love is more glorious in his elect And after the comming of Christ if there be or hath beene a Countrey which hath not sufficiently heard of Christ and his workes the people have not sufficiently performed their duties to which they were bound by the Law of Nature From those that correspond with the light of Nature the light of Grace is never with-held neither was Christ ever nor ever shall be conceal'd but either is told or was foretold CHAP. XI BUt now at length sinne being very forward and by occasion of the Law growing stubborne and striving against the Law and the world groaning aloud under the judgements of God and the waight of the old Law and the Prophets and servants little prevailing and all earnestly desiring a Messias a Saviour the Redeemer of Israell Christ himselfe the Lord and Master of the family God knew in all Eternity that it was in his power and liberty to make other creatures some above the degrees of Angels some in the distance betwixt Angels and men with divers endowments and perfections to whom he might liberally and with a full hand communicate himselfe yet rejecting in the long and various catalogue all the rest being a rich God hee chose poore man intimating a great correspondence betwixt a rich Creatour and a poore Creature the one being very full and most able to give the other very empty and lying open to receive And also he knew that amongst all the severall kinds of communications none was so fit and firme as the joyning of himselfe to some created nature in such a rich and exquisite manner that the Creature might be as it were married to the Divinity and make one onely Person with it and therefore he joyned himselfe to man by the mediation of the Hypostaticall Union if the Schooles say true the most perfect Creature that ever God made as comming more neere to him not in being but in touch in this most excellent kinde of conjunction And as the Sunne turn'd face and ran backe in the same steps it came tenne degrees in the dayes of Ezechias so he descended under the nine Quires of Angels even to humane nature the tenth last least and lowest degree of reasonable Creatures taking it to have and to hold for all Eternity S. Aug. de praedest c. 15. Vide ibi plura Quo altius carnem attolleret non habuit saith Saint Austin He not onely raised humane nature as high as it possibly could rise or omnipotencie lift it but also he brought downe his Divinity as low as it could come It was fitly sung by a good musitian and the straine was very sweete Hee bowed the Ps ●8 9. Heavens also and came downe and darknesse was under his feete For they being high and we lowe they were bow'd downe by a strong hand to us and our condition the hand of him who bringing light trod darknesse under his feete And it is pretty to observe how God hath laboured to unite himselfe with man The water being hindered in one passage seeketh another For as likenesse is that from which love is taken so likewise Union is that to which love is carried First man was no sooner man but God fastned himselfe to him by Grace Which Union though it was not the Union of God with man but of his Grace yet Grace did present the person of God and while shee kept her Court in man performed the strict will of her Lord her selfe and so governed that all the powers where she was did the same Adam not falling sinfully before his fall But God seeing that this Union was quickly dissolved in Adams fall and that being a very unsettled Union it was in danger to breake at every turne and foreseeing what we now see he made another more sure and sacred cord of Union in the Incarnation whereby humane nature is tied to the Divinity and makes up the same Person with the second Person in Trinity without any danger of a divorce or breach of friendship But because this Union is not the joyning of God to every man but to the nature of man and to no mans nature in particular but his owne he sleepes not here but comes home to every one without exception in the Sacrament marrying himselfe by grace to the soule applyed in the resemblance of bodily nourishment to make the Union of Grace more strong with a double knot as labouring if it were possible to turne into the soule and be the same thing with it as bread becomes not one of the two in carne una in one flesh but una caro one and the same flesh with the body But because we are not yet come to that which by the Grecians is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies both the end and perfection and because this Union also now is and now is not God hath ordained a settled state of Union by which the soule of man in Heaven is tyed with an eternall bond of peace to him humane understanding to the divine understanding the will of man to the will of God and by which all the powers of man are fixt in a firme and most neere connexion and subordination with and to him for ever How then ought we to stoope and comply if we sincerely desire a Union of all not onely with our selves for our owne ends but with the Primitive Church for Gods end CHAP. XII THe Apostles and Preachers of Christ following the tract and foot-steps of God and of their Master Christ who also conversed with Publicans and sinners though not in their sinnes and spake otherwise to his Apostles to whom it was given to know mysteries otherwise to the people were all things to all men Saint Paul to the Jewes under the Law though not a Jew under the Law became as a Jew under the Law To the Gentiles as one of them though not one of them To the weake though not weake as weake The great Interpreters of holy Scripture give three reasons why Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrewes doth not begin after his accustomed manner Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ The first was given by Theodoret because he was more answerably Aposto●●s Doctor Gentium the Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles as himselfe proveth The second by

knowledge and practice which otherwise should never either have beene practised or knowne no patience of the best proofe but occasioned by an injury no injury guiltlesse of sinne the cleannest exercise of our Charity towards our neighbour supposes in our neighbour the want of a thing requisite and all want of that generation is the poore childe of sinne the most high and most elevated praxis or exercise of our charity towards God then flames out when we seale our beliefe with our blood in martyrdome no martyrdom but usherd with persecution no persecution free from sinne If we are not sorry that he sinn'd we are not sorry that millions of millions of soules shall now be lost eternally lost never to be found again which if Adam had stood upright had certainely shone with God in Heaven as long as hee And if we are sorry that he sinn'd wee are sorry that Christ joyn'd our flesh and soule to his Divinity expressed his true love to us by dying for us was seene by us here in the world and will feast even the corporall eye in Heaven with the most delightfull sight of his blessed body for ever And howsoever some think otherwise if Adam had not sinned Christ had not tooke our nature for he was not so much delighted with humane nature as hee was desirous to die for mankinde And if wee are not sorry that he sinn'd wee are not sorry that one sinne was the cause of all sinnes and all sinnes the cause of all punishments and that one punishment is behind and waits for us in another world with which all other punishments put together and made one punishment are in no kinde comparable and that I and my neighbours and he that is abroad and perhaps now little thinks of such a businesse are all ignorant how we shall dye now we are borne how wee shall end our lifes now wee are alive now wee are put on how we shall get off and when the Ax is laid to the root which way the Tree shall fall and what shall become of us everlastingly Be wee sorry or not sorry Adam sinned It being done God's will be done And yet because it was but his permissive will his will of sufferance and hee suffers many things against his will not of necessity but because he will I will be sorry that Adam sinn'd that is offended God God made the soule of man as upright as his body and clothed it with the white garment of originall Justice God being the fountaine of all power grace and sufficiencie could have hindred the fall but because he was not his neighbour nor obliged by any law for who should give a law to the first Law-giver and to demonstrate the full extent of his dominion over his creatures he would not and having left man in the hand of his owne counsell and set within the reach of his hand fire and water and man having wilfully plaid foule God strived to make the best of an ill game and therefore hee drew from the fall of Adam besides the former benefits a more ample demonstration of his power wisedome justice providence and chiefly of his charity the triall of reason the triumphs of vertue in all kindes and the greater splendour of his Church It is as plaine as if it were wrot by the finger of God with the Sun-beames which St. Austin saith speaking of God Non sineret malum nisi ex malo sciret Aug. de corrept et grat cap. 10. dicere bonum He would not suffer ill if he did not well know how to strain good out of ill and sweetnesse out of sowernesse O sweet God I have committed a great deale of sower evill come in thy goodnesse and draw good and sweetnesse out of it the good of Glory to thee and the sweetnesse of peace to mee both here and hereafter Thou hast held my hand in all my actions as well evill as good as a Master the hand of his Scholler whom he teacheth to write and in evill actions I have pulled thy hand thy power after mine to evill which was onely evill to me because I onely intended it in good actions thou didst alwayes pull hold and over-rule my hand and truly speaking it was thy good for I of my selfe cannot write one faire letter And I know thou hast not suffered me to run so farre into evill but thou canst turne all to good An infinite wisedome joyn'd with an infinite goodnesse can joyne good in company with evill be it as evill as it can be MEDITATION VII ANd if now I clip away an odd end of ensuing time a little remnant of black and white of nights and dayes a small and contemptible number of evenings and mornings wee strong people that now can move and set to work our armes and leggs and bodies at our pleasure wee that look so high and big withall shall not be what now we are For now we live and pleasing thoughts passe through our heads We runne we ride we stay we sit downe we eat and drink and laugh We rise up and laugh againe and so dance then rest a while and drink and talk and laugh aloud then mingle words of complement and actions of curtesie to shew part of our breeding then muse and think of gathering wealth and what merry dayes we shall enjoy But the time will suddenly be here and it stands now at the dore and is comming in when every one of us from the King God blesse his Majesty to the Beggar God sweeten his Misery shall fall and break in two peeces a soule and a body And the soule be given up into the hands of new Companions that we never saw and be carried either upward or downward in a mourning weed or in a robe of joy to an everlasting day or a perpetuall night which we know there are but wee never saw to be nor heard described by any that saw them And when the body shall bee left behind being now no more a living body no more the busie body it was but a dumb deafe blind blockish unsensible carcasse and now after all the great doings not able to stirre in the least part or to answer to very meane and easie questions as how doe you are you hungry is it day or night and be cast out for carrion it begins to stink away with it for most loathsome carrion either to the wormes or to the birds or to the fishes or to the beasts And when the holy Prophecie of Esay will be fulfilled The mirth of tabrets ceaseth the noise of them that rejoyce endeth the joy Es 24. 8. 9. of the harpe ceaseth They shall not drink wine with a song Nor yet without a song And there shall be no joy but the joy of Heaven no mirth or noise of them that rejoyce no singing but in Heaven O wretched Caine that built the first Citie upon earth because he was banished from Heaven Ille primus in terra fundamentum

him if it be of high things he cannot endure it he cannot taste aright bitter is sweet and sweet bitter to his infected palate hee hath litle stomach to his meate hee loathes it and when hee eates it will not stay with him or if it does he cannot digest it perfectly hee cannot stand without leaning hee cannot goe without a staffe he cannot runne without one And why all this Because he is sicke because he is a very weake man O Adam what hast thou done but in vaine Had the best of us beene Adam he would have eaten had there beene a Serpent and a woman perhaps had there beene a Serpent and no woman perhaps had there been a woman and no Serpent perhaps had there beene neitheir woman nor Serpent For God being absent with his efficacie he might have beene both woman and Serpent to himselfe But let him passe It is beleeved that God hath forgiven Adam and his wife who first brought sinne into the world and we may have great hope he will be a tender-hearted father also towards us that never saw the blessed houres of innocencie Nothing can harden his tendernesse but our sinnes And there are onely two deformities in our sinnes conceivable to be most odious and urging to revenge the greatnesse of them the multitude of them O! but the Prophet David a knowing man prescribes a speciall remedy Have mercie upon Psal 51. 1. me O God according to thy loving kindnesse The Latine translation gives it Secundum magnam misericordiam tuam according to thy great mercie great sinnes great mercie a present remedy What comes after according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions a multitude of grievous sinnes a multitude of tender mercies an approved remedy There wants only a lively faith and a vertuous life like two hands to make the application to bring them together and 't is done Consideration 2. THe light of the Understanding which properly belongs to the Understanding is onely naturall and that lesse cleare then it was And a naturall light leads onely to the knowledge of naturall things or of things as naturall for nothing can worke beyond the vertue received from its causes But man is ordained for God as for an end which goes beyond the graspe and comprehension of nature according to Saint Pauls Divinity borrowed from the Prophet Esay Eye hath not seene 1 Cor. 2. 9 nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And the end ought alwayes to be foreseene and foreknowne by them who are engaged to direct and turne the face of all their intentions and actions to the end Therefore another light is necessary a light above the knowledge and reach of nature of which the Understanding by nature is altogether destitute Here is a wondrous defect Who can shew mee such another We naturally see there is a God Farther we naturally see that all things were made for us and we for God howsoever the Stoicks thought one man was borne for another And yet by the proper strength of nature we cannot goe to him whom we see to be whom we see to be our end and for whom we see we were made nor yet towards him Saint Austin one of the most searching spirits that ever was both a spirit and a body solves this hard knot of difficulty in a discourse of another linage Consultissime homini praecipitur ut rectis passibus ambulet ut cum se non S. Aug. de perfect Iust cap. 7. posse perspexerit medicinam requirat c. The lame unable man is fitly commanded to go that perceiving his defect of being unable he may seeke a cure and be able But the cure what is it The grace of God and as Conc. Senonense a learned Councell speaketh gratia semper est in promptu the grace of God is alwayes in a readinesse I am not commanded to travell for it wheresoever I am it is there also I may lift up my hands and take it if I open my heart wide it will drop into it And as it was the nature of Originall sinne to weaken the naturall and to darken the supernaturall light of the soule so likewise it is the nature of actuall sinne to wound nature and to kill grace grace only being directly opposite to sinne And thence it comes that still as we sin still we are more darkened and that still the more we sinne still the more we are deceived in our judgements and still erre the more in the sight and knowledge of truth For why doe wicked men ingulft in wickednesse apprehend most horrible sinnes as triviall matters because their Candle is out the light by which they saw is darkened with sinne Why doe weake Christians change their opinions from good to evill from evill to more evill Why doe they grow more strong and obstinate in evill opinions Whither soever I goe I must come hither for an answer Because some private or publike sins have removed their Candle-sticke out of his place and they are in darknesse God blesse my heart from the darknesse of Egypt It is a pretty observation that although the Israelites and the Egyptians were mingled together yet the plague of darknesse which was a continuall night wheresoever it found an Egyptian was neither plague nor darknesse to an Israelite no verily though hand in hand with an Egyptian O Lord I learne here that I am blinde and darke and I know that I am weake and therefore without thee my contemplation will be darke and weake as I am Consideration 3. VVE see God in this world not in himselfe but per speculum creaturarum through the glasse of creatures It is Rom. 1. 20. worthily said by Saint Paul The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearely seene being understood by the things that are made Clearely seene to be but not clearely seene what they are in themselves For if so the things which are seene should be as exactly perfect as the things which are not seene as representing them perfectly It is a direct passage by corporall things up to spirituall For God applyes himselfe accordingly to the nature of every thing in which he workes The Angles are Spirits and therefore their directions even before their union with God were altogether spirituall But wee being partly corporall and outwarly furnished with senses are most commonly taught by things which offer and present themselvs to sense And because the seeing faculty is the most quick and apprehensive the sense of seeing hath more instructions And seeing most like to understanding what is seene may best be understood In all Gods creatures as being the creatures of one God there is a strange kind of consent combination and harmony In earthly things heavenly things are strangely set out and proposed to us For if the way had not some springlings of resemblance with the Country we

I am very wel contented with the sweete condition in which thy wisdome hath placed me Thou art wisdom it self other wisdome is not wisdom but as conformable to thy wisedome And I doe most humbly yeeld up my selse to comply with the ranke and quality in which I am by thy royall appointment And I remaine indifferent to have or to want to be sicke or in health to dye or to live As thou pleasest so be it And if I could learne thy farther and utmost pleasure I would goe through the world to effect it though I should labour to death in the performance An Act of the feare of God O Lord I feare thee because as thou hast made me of nothing so thou canst reduce me to nothing in one turne of an instant Which perhaps would be a greater losse of my selfe then to be lost in Hell Because then I should not be thy creature I should have no being no dependance of thee but should be lost branches tree roote and all It had beene better for Judas that he had never beene borne because then hee should never have tasted of life or being But when he was Judas which was better for him not to be or to be miserable thou onely knowest I feare thee because as thou art infinitely mercifull so thy justice is infinite And because sinne being but a temporall thing quickly committed and past over and sometimes as soone almost forgot as committed a meere flash is answered notwithstanding with eternall punishment as fighting against an eternall God And yet I feare thee not as a slave but as a sonne For I have more love towards thee then feare of thee though I much feare thee And also my hope weighs down my feare And though all this be true teach me to worke out my salvation with feare and trembling with a great feare which may cause trembling An Act of Praising God O God I doe praise thee for thy most infinite goodnesse thy most infinite power and for all thy most infinite attributes and perfections If thou hadst not beene what thou art I had never beene what I am Yet I praise thee for the first although the other had not followed and yet I praise thee because it followed I doe praise thee for all the benefits which have beene or shall be hereafter bestowed upon the humane nature of Christ and upon all thy Saints and Angels one of which is the continuance of glory Upon men women and children from the beginning of the world to the end of it and especially upon thy chosen vessels for all thy benefits upon ignorant persons who did not know thee and therefore could not love thee nor keepe thy commandements for all thy benefits upon wicked persons that would not and upon dumbe and unsensible creatures that could not praise thee And upon me a vile one Thy blessed name be blessed by thy selfe and by thy Angels and Saints for ever and by men women and children while they live and by all creatures till they cease to be creatures And let all the people say Amen We must be seriously carefull that these Acts in their exercise be true and goe to the bottome of the heart not faigned and superficiall Rule 7. WHen any thing comes to you by way of speciall blessing or gift kneele downe in some private place and receive it as immediately from the hands of God saying O God This is not the gift of destiny or chance of men or Angels it is thy gift onely it passes from thee to me by creatures appointed for the just execution of thy good pleasure upon whom in this respect I beg a blessing If thou hadst not first ordained it for me it could not have thus passed from hand to hand and at last beene reached to me From thee therefore I take it O thou sunne sea fountain spring treasure of all goodnesse O thou good and gracious giver of all good gifts and graces O thou good and perfect giver of every good and perfect gift Catch all occasions to speake of God and praise him and stretch out the discourse as farre as you can And be heartily glad when you heare the holy name of God glorified or his goodnesse mercie justice or other excellencies magnified Yea out of the Devils temptations raise occasions to praise God which is a most short and compendiarie way to divert him as when the Devill hammereth evill words and actions into your minde as he doth especially when you are angry to bee used at any times turne upon him and say Blessed be God that keepeth my feete from falling Hallowed be his name who threw downe proud Lucifer from the gates of Heaven And alwayes reserve a time wherein to blesse God privately for the gifts which others do praise in you And being dispraised rejoyce Rule 8. HAve alwayes some pious and short sayings floating upon thy memory at the end of thy tongue and in thy heart like Arrowes in a Quiver which thou mayst at every turne dart into the lap of thy beloved and use upon every call of occasion As at the sight or hearing of anothers misery This very stroke might have bruised me as it hath my neighbour why was not I the man I might have beene as easily found out amongst the crowde as he But I am Gods favorite And I should bee more wicked then he that is most wicked if God should with-draw his grace favour and helpes from me At the sight of a blinde man Lord I see thee daily in thy creatures O thou that art the eye of thy selfe and that lookest through the clouds upon the world I can looke up to thee At the sight of a lame man I might have beene like this poore imperfect creature but now I will bestirre my selfe and goe readily to thy house and there say and not saintly but heartily O Lord O God O Lord God thou art the giver and preserver of all things When thou lookest up to Heaven say That way lies my Countrey wherein God shines out upon his Saints and Angels to whom they now sing with heavenly musicke and most melodious harmony mee thinkes I heare their voices What good power will draw the curtaines of Heaven that I may likewise see their glory And when downe to the earth I doe or can walke daily over the loathsome carcasses and rotten bones of thousands that have beene gallant men and women and beene carried up and downe in coaches and when I have done all I must die This way lieth hell O the confusion that is there O the darknesse In sorrow How can I be troubled when God and his Angels rejoyce continually In joy I will rejoyce in the Lord againe I say I will rejoyce At other times My tongue and lips which have concurred to speake against thee shall now joyne their forces but what to doe to speake of the marvellous things which thou hast done in our dayes and in the ages before us My hands that have

nature fals under himselfe and workes with every creature or second cause in a manner and measure agrreable to their naturall and ordinary way of working So likewise being the Author of Grace and having never yet for some great reasons best knowne to himselfe made two men with a perfect agreement either of face or nature sendeth Apostles and Preachers who have in their commands a speciall injunction of being 1 Cor. 9. 22 like to him who saith I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some And God himselfe not onely in executing the generall Acts and Decrees of his Providence over his creatures but also and more especially in the more notable praxis and speciall exercise of his providence over his Church from the beginning of the world was all things to all men CHAP. VII GOD hath full power and absolute dominion over all his Creatures because he call'd yea catched them out of nothing and because to speake in the Apostles dialect in him they live move and have their being And therefore hee may lawfully give Lawes to them to the due and strict observation of which they are strongly bound under paine of his high displeasure seconded with most heavie punishment Wherefore giving a Law to the Jewes by the mediation of Moses he beginneth with an argument of his authority and dominion over them I am the Exod 20. 2. Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage This laid for the corner-stone I thus proceed in the building In the infancie and childhood of the world when sinne was not as yet so active so quicke so cunning but dull and clownish and to foreshow the backwardnesse of nature in matters pertaining to Heaven yes to naturall knowledge and even humane society and also that it might fully and plentifully appeare to after-ages how nature is wrought and polished as in materiall things by Art so in spirituall matters by Grace The Law by which God for the most part guided man was onely borne with him was young as he was young and grew as he grew non scripta sed nata lex as the Orator saith being a Law not written and sent in a letter to us from Lycurgus Solon or Moses but borne with us or if written written onely in the soule of man where it continually remaineth in the shape of a light discovering to the view of the Soule the beauty of good and the deformity of evill For Good is faire and amiable and the cleare eye of reason beholdeth in it at the first sight a singular convenience with the will of man and a sympathy with Heaven And therefore they who were bound onely with the looser ties of the Law of nature and who now in strange Countries and in wilde and uncouth places dispense their actions by the light of reason beare a Preacher in their hearts Ill is blacke and deformed and reason in the first glance seeth a loathsomenesse a Toad in it and heareth presently as it were a jarring and disagreement with God and Heaven And therefore the drunkard the lascivious person and others of the same torne and ragged coate loath in deed not by any pious act of Christian vertue but by a deed of nature their owne beastlinesse and can by no meanes endure to be call'd what they are For as the Beast runneth the Bird flieth from danger as the one prepareth his den the other his nest as they looke abroad for daily nourishment provide carefully for their young know what will satisfie their cold of hunger what coole their heate of thirst what complyeth with their different appetites follow the leading of their admirable properties and by a secret instinct cheerefully performe the severall acts of their nature So man since he dealt with the Tree of Knowledge naturally knoweth good as opposed to evill as he naturally distinguisheth light from darknesse Againe some things are good in themselves and not good onely because God commands them to be loved and imbraced and these in the first place the light of nature sheweth to be good And some things are evill in themselves and not evill onely because markt and branded with a prohibition and these chiefely the light of nature showeth to be evill For if the light or law of nature in its owne nature did not make it cleare to Caine that he ought not to have killed his good brother Abel how did he sinne or what branch of law did he breake in killing him sinne being the violation of a law But certainly he trespassed upon that first principle of nature in morality Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri ne feceris what you would that men should not doe unto you doe not you unto them And hither Saint Paul pointeth For when the Gentiles which have not the law doe by nature the things Rom. 2. 14. contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves One step more and we are in the bottome Although the the Sage Aegyptians in Damascius cried out three times in every performance of their heathenish mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unknowne darknesse yet by the plaine and easie search of humane power the old Philosophers found that there was a God and that he was but one in Essence that he was every where that he was omnipotent and the like though verily their knowledge both of God and his workes was rather opinion then knowledge it did so hang waver For the Philosopher opening his minde occasionally concerning the birth of the world sometimes he was and sometimes againe he was not Aristotle In one Arist l. 1. de coelo 1. Top. c. 9. booke hee judgeth absolutely that the world stood in the same state in which now it is in all eternity In another he stops like a man come unawares to a place where the way is divided and doubts which path leads to the truth In a third booke discussing the generation of living things Lib. 3. de generatione animalium c. 11. he sayes a man shall not beleeve amisse who shall take it for certaine that the first man and beast upon supposition that they came of the earth were either produced out of a Worme or an Egge and at length breaking the Egge in long handling concludes it is the most consentaneous to reason that they both drew their first parentage from a Worme And thus hee sought creepingly amongst the Wormes for what hee could not finde though very neere him In like manner he played with the Immortality of the soule It pleased him and it displeased him He tooke it and he threw it off againe And he was more willing in the end to disclaime it then owne it And the flowings and ebbings of his owne braine had he studied inward might have urged him to a greater confusion of thoughts and more trouble of minde then Euripus in which Saint Gregorie Nazienzen teacheth

reason why they danced to a golden Calfe in the Wildernesse was because they had formerly seene the like sport and practise in Egypt when they were busie as it is recorded of them in raising an Egyptian Pyramis Yet God did often draw here a line and there a figure of this great mystery in the old Testament that it might not seeme to be new doctrine when it should afterwards be delivered with the sound of a Trumpet in the new Testament And questionlesse we shall know in Heaven and behold in every degree and latitude of the beatificall vision many great secrets and priviledged mysteries though not in so high a kinde which God is not pleased ever to reveale out of himself to the world in consideration of humane weaknesse and distraction This thrice high mystery of the blessed Trinity is onely fit nourishment for an understanding thrice purified thrice enlightned that is by the light of Nature the light of the Law and the light of the Gospel And onely we by the onely helpe of Grace can throughly digest it It is our Faith onely which can say with a good courage to these humane sciences that vaunt so much of their clearenesse as the Spouse in the Canticles to the daughters of Jerusalem I am blacke but 1. Cant. 5. comely O yee daughters of Jerusalem I am blacke seeme blacke I le tell you why because the most noble part of my Verities stand over humane capacity the distance in part causing the errour And likewise they seeme not faire not because they are foule but because they are vail'd and discover not their choyce beauty to the dull uncapable and weake eye of reason Yet I am beautifull because the ground of my beaty is good and can never decay and because I and my beauty stand upon a firme Basis and fixe upon the sound and solid verity or veracity of God who can neither deceive others in respect of his infinite truth nor be deceived in himselfe in regard of the infinite light of his understanding from whom I descend by Revelation The Kings daughter is all glorious within Ps 45. 13. sayes the Kingly Prophet She is but glorious within and yet shee is all gloririous And the glory of the Kings daughter of Faith is from within from the Truth of God upon which it secretly anchors Let Moses speake And the Lord Exod. 13. 21. went before them before the children of Israel in their journey towards Canaan by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light Some fit this Text to the comforts and crosses of this life God appearing a cloud in our earthly comforts and light in our crosses and in both a pillar And some to Faith For God was both blacke and comely as our Faith by which we are led towards Canaan is both darke and cleere We may best learne of our Masters and teach our Schollers with Aquinas that whereas there are two chiefe faculties of the Soule the Understanding and Will and with the Understanding we know with the Will we love it is a greater height of perfection to know the things which are under us then to love them but for the things which are above us it is more perfect satisfaction to love them then to know and understand them CHAP. X. BUt here we must encounter a difficulty It is the quaint observation of Saint Bernard that Caine was Fideicida antequam S. Bernar. Serm. 24. in Cant. Fratricida that he killed Faith before hee murthered his Brother As likewise the great Doctor of our Westerne Church Saint Austin saith of Judas that hee first betraied Faith and then his Master For an evill Faith is commonly the lewd and common mother of evill workes And alasse Caine had many children like him in this foule act of killing Faith For till God was pleased after the death of his Sonne to spread himselfe with an equall streame upon Jew and Gentile we read but of one people and some odde persons in the number of whom were holy Job and his friends that were his Why now was not God all things to all men The answer is not farre off He was and gave meate to every sicke and diseased person agreeable with the qualities and disposition of his stomacke supposing his disease I will make it as cleere as the light Saint John speaking of Christ the true light saith That was the true light which enlightneth every man Io. 1. 9. that commeth into the world Every man not every man that is enlightned but every man that commeth into the world Before the comming of Christ God enlightned the Gentiles by many fit helps and competent directions As the three Kings and people of the East by the doctrine and Prophesies of some beleeving Gentiles The Egyptians by an old Record shewing that when a Virgin should bring forth a childe their Idols should fall before him like Dagon before the Arke of God in memory of which they set up in one of their great Temples a faire Image of a Virgin with a childe in her armes The people of Alexandria in Egypt by the Hieroglyphicke of a Crosse mentioned by Ruffinus the interpretation of which Ruffin Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 29. was vita ventura life to come with a Propheticall sequell annexed to the interpretation that their emblems and obscurities sh●●ld continue till by the Crosse life should come to the world The great and learned Travellers into Egypt by certaine holy markes of life and doctrine left there as it were imprinted by the Jewes And the whole world by Jewes dispersed here there which gathered many to God and to Jerusalem And there were dwelling saith Saint Luke at Jerusalem Jewes devout Act. 2. 5. men out of every Nation under Heaven As likewise now a great Schoole of holy Fathers teacheth they are all scattered and dispersed that they may daily shew to Infidels the old Prophesies and predictions of what wee preach And also the whole world by the Sibyls who dwelling in Caves under ground were thought to bee filled with a Spirit rising like a dampe from the fruitfull entrals of the earth but were indeed inspired from Heaven and filled like Conduit-pipes with sweete water of which themselves did not partake as not understanding the drift of their owne words And againe all the world by the books of Plató and other divine Philosophers by the strange agreement of the seventy Elders in the interpretation of the old Testament called into Egypt by one of the Ptolomies and by the cleare and clearely Propheticall writings of the Jewish Rabbines For whatsoever is well said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Just Apolog 1. saith Saint Justin belongeth to Christ and to us Christians The holy Ghost being the holy cause of all caused truth And certainely their eyes used to darknesse would hardly beare more then the small glimmerings of light And

have done CHAP. VIII HEre I will give certaine formes of Christian duties which in some part belong to me in regard of my former wandrings and which I will not fit onely to my selfe that others may use them upon emergent occasions That God may be glorified and in conformity to his most holy Will the sacred measure of all goodnesse I most heartily forgive all people that have trespassed against me whēsoever wheresoever or howsoever Now I look better upon them I behold my own self in every one of them or another me very like my selfe sent hither into the world the same way upon the same businesse and sweating here in the Vineyard as I doe for the same or like paiment here I doe not meane the Papists and perhaps pleasing God better upon earth by some hidden vertues and to be seated more close to him in Heaven then my selfe Shall I be displeased with any with whom God is pleased to be well pleased Indeed we must be friends for wee hope to live together in one house for ever And more I behold the Image of God in them and our onely Saviour Christ Jesus in the humane nature which he tooke and married to his Divinity and cleerely in the body which he put upon him For his sake I will imitate Saint Stephen the boldest because the first of Martyrs who being oppressed with a showre not of hard words or the like but of stones kneeled downe and cried with a loud voyce His body Acts. 7. 60. was as low as Earth but his voice as high as Heaven and he sent it thither with a good will for he cried with a loud voice and yet he cried not for the help of others helpe helpe or for his owne wrongs but as his wrongs were their sinnes and hee kneeled downe before he was beate down and although they might have beate him from his standing yet they could not beate him from his kneeling before they had beate him from his life nor with most hard stones beate downe his prayer which then was his and now is mine Lord lay not this sinne to their charge One thing I know they were both Gods whips and the instruments of his triall in respect of me And blessed be God in all Eternity that fitted and prepared to my hands so rich so ample and such fine-weav'd occasions of patience and humility I blesse not God for the sinne that it was committed but for his good intention towards me supposing the commission of evill and for the good which he wrought by evill when it was committed O the blindnesse of anger It is impossible to goe or stand or spet or so much as looke handsomely in the troubled judgement of the angry person Anger thinks that we poyson the air when we breath and so is afraid of catching the Plague and that every thing we looke upon we infect with the eyes of a Basiliske and that what we touch is stung by a Scorpion and therefore the part touched must be cut off and that where wee smell thence we have extracted the sweetnesse And the minde of an angry person saith S. Chrysostome is a market-place S. Chrys tom 4. hom 24. full of tumult where is a continuall clamour of goers and commers this man calling that chiding one asking another answering a fifth murmuring a sixth hallowing one here singing one there lamenting and all with different voices the loud crying of Camels the rude braying of Asses a confused noise of all sorts of workemen incessantly knocking on every side with their severall instruments Here is noise enough to make a man lose the right use of his hearing Go my soule to the Philosophers that knew neither Christ nor his Father as we know them to Plato and to his Socrates Aske Cicero if this be the minde of a vertuous man The Stoicks would have thought such a man not a man but the Ship-wrack of a man It is the voice of the Psalmist Righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other Upon Psal 85. 10 which words Saint Austin discourseth S. Aug. super illud Psalmi Justitia Pax. as he uses to doe most excellently and me thinkes he speakes to me Duae sunt amicae Justitia Pax tu forte unam vis alteram non facis Righteousnesse and Peace are deare and neare-united friends you perhaps would have one without the other Which can never be for they are as unseparable as their friendship you shall not finde them parted they are alwayes kissing together You desire the sweets of Righteousnesse but you have no minde to Righteousnesse that is sweet The one is to be done the other to be enjoyed If you will enjoy Peace you must doe righteousnesse Why then Lord I begge of thee not Peace without righteousnesse but the Peace of Righteousnesse that while they kisse together in me I may be kissing too but what thy sacred feete nailed to the Crosse and bleeding for me Under which I cast all my wrongs great and small And for the persons if my wishes were as efficacious as the first words of God in the creation Let there be Light after which immediately Gen. 1. 3. appeared that most gallant creature all in white in the next instant they should all shine in glory with God and his Angels CHAP. IX NOw let me looke inward and search the many turnings and windings of my heart for sores that cannot be salv'd except they be salv'd as well abroad as at home and with different plaisters sores that ake in two places at once They are knowne by this name injuries done to my neighbours And they are like the Serpent which Plinie calleth Amphisbaena headed at both ends and at both ends they dispense their poyson for they not onely wound me with guilt but also in the same blow my neighbours with hurt dammage and losse of some good thing to which they have a just title unjustly taken from them Every good action is tutored by some vertue and the lawfull change of the dominion which every one hath over his owne lawfully made his owne must bee regulated and informed by Justice It is the Doctrine of Saint Austin Non dimittitur S. Aug. peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum The sinne is not pardoned except the thing taken away be restored there being a greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and foulenesse of injustice in the keeping and retaining then in the taking away of my neighbours goods the act of retaining them being indeed a continuall taking of them and accompanied with much more deliberation and consequently a most deliberate negation or deniall of sorrow for having taken them and an implicit or close and secret will or love of the same and the like wicked action and verily an utter exclusion of repentance upon this ground Repentance by which we are grieved for the commission of one sinne or more if it include not virtually a sorrow for all our sinnes committed is not