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	unity_n	3,413	5	9.5095	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20943	A treatise of the knovvledge of God, as excellently as compendiously handled by the famous and learned divine, Peter Du Moulin, late minister of the Reformed Church in Paris, and professor of theologie in the Vniversitie of Sedan. Faithfully translated out of the originall by Robert Codrington, Master of Arts; De cognitione Dei. English	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1634 (1634)	STC 7321; ESTC S118646	41,950	94

his unrighteous soule how Iulian in his very entrance into the Empire strooke through with an arrow gave up his impure spirit how if we may beleeve Suidas enraged dogs tore Lucian in pieces Neither is that an Argument of little consequence to confirme the authority of the Scripture which Iosephus writeth in the twelfth Booke of his Iewish Antiquities Chap 2. where Demetrius Phaleraeus the Keeper of the Kings Library speakes thus to Ptolomaeus Philadelphus out of Hecataeus Abderita concerning the sacred Bookes of the Iewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being pure and holy it was unlawfull that they should be exprest by a prophane mouth the same Demetrius Phaleraeus relates out of Aristaeus that Theopompus having wrought into his story some part taken from the sacred Word was for fourty dayes together strucken with an Apoplexy untill by some respits of releasement from his sickenesse he appeased God by his prayers and desisted from his enterprise being admonished in a dreame that these things happened to him because he intruded into holy things In the same manner Theodoctes the Poet having inserted into a Tragedie of his something taken from the Word of God being strucke with blindnesse was inforced to abandon the enterprise which so rashly he beganne Agreeable to this is that which Clemens speaketh in his first Booke of Tapist and Tertullian in his Booke of Womens habites that Ierusalem being taken and razed by the Babylonians all the Bookes of the Iewes were restored againe by Esdras their intention is not that the holy Bookes were utterly extinguisht and abollished and then againe restored by Esdras for so the holy Bookes which at this day we reade should not be the Bookes of Moses of David or of Esay but of Esdras who by new inspirations did compile them the intention of Clement and Tertullian is that the Bookes of the Old Testament during the Captivity of Babylon dispersed or but rarely and negligently transcribed were digested by Esdras into order more accurately written and restored to their native beauty And since that time these bookes with so much Religion were observed by the Iewes whom it pleased God to make the Library of the Christians that if the booke had at any time fallen to the ground they would enjoyne themselues a solemne and extraordinary fast and at the end of every booke they did use to write not onely the number of the verses but the number of the letters also in which scrupulous sedulity of theirs the true honour due unto the Scripture doth not consist but hee doth reverence it as hee ought who reads it with such eyes as the constant wife doth the contract of her marriage or the good Sonne doth his fathers Will who never heares the Scripture mentioned but his heart doth leape and his filiall affections earne who by this rule doth compose and squares all his life his deeds and words nay and his thoughts also But as young Samuel being awaked from sleepe by the voice of God lay presently downe to sleepe againe thinking it to be but the voyce of Man and not of God so the greatest part of men the word of God being heard and they awakened by it in a light feare they beginne a little to stirre stretch themselues but by and by they fall againe into a sleepe of vices because they heard this word as the word of man and not as the word of God What is contained in these bookes it would bee too tedious to describe it shall be sufficient to propose unto the eye the elements of Christian Religion that wee may see in what things the true knowledge of God consisteth The Scripture therefore teacheth that Man was first created to the Image of God endued with Holinesse and Righteousnesse and revolted from God by his owne consent and by the suggestion of the Devill whereupon came sin into the world and by sinne Death and Malediction notwithstanding the Image of God in Man is not so disfigured that there remaine not certaine traces of it to wit a certaine perceiving of Divinity and some graines of honesty and civill justice which notions that God might helpe and that no man might excuse his sinne by pretending ignorance God hath given his Law written by man which Law is reduced to these two heads To loue God with all our heart and with all our strength and to loue our neighbour as our selues which Law with great terrour hee pronounced in a voice whose accents were thunders and shining with flames of Lightning that the people might understand that their Lawgiver was armed and who so despised his commandements should not escape unpunished this dreadfull clause adjoyned to it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are contayned in the booke of the Law to doe them When therefore Man by nature prone unto sinne cannot fulfill these Commandements this Law were nothing else then the torment of the conscience and the ministery of Death had not God according to his mercy releeved Man in this forlorne estate Hee therefore in his appoynted time prescribed by the Prophets sent his Sonne the everlasting Word the wisedome of his Father whom hee begat from all eternity who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God into the world and endued him with humane flesh so the Word was made flesh and God in vnity of person assumed humane Nature without any diminution of the Divinity or mixture of the Natures for it was requisite that the Mediator betwixt God and Man should bee God and Man and touch both extreames by the Communion of Nature In this Nature of Man this Sonne of God our Redeemer finished the worke of our Redemption perfectly fulfilling the Law by expiating our sins by his Death and triumphing over Death by his Resurrection hee is the Author of eternall life to all those that beleeue in him Wherefore as the Sinne of Adam is imputed to all his posterity so the Righteousnesse of Christ is imputed unto all those who by the Spirit of Adoption and faith in him are made the Sonnes of God By this marke Christian Religion is discerned and distinguished from all Religions which humane reason hath invented that it shewes the way by which onely we haue accesse to God by his Sonne who is the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to life And though God inhabites light which none can come unto yet after some manner hee hath made himselfe visible in his Sonne who is the Image of God invisible and God with us whosoever shall endeavour to come to God by any other way hee shall find him a Iudge and not a Father and the more he hasts the more hee erres and headlong fals into a certaine ruine To the finishing of this worke of our Redemption the person of the Sonne was chosen rather than the person of the Father or the Holy Ghost for if the Father had beene made Man and assumed our Fesh there had beene in

the West But that Generation and corruption doth arise from the oblique Courses of the Sun and Planets through the Zodiack whiles acording to their Situation they change their Aspects and by their accesse neerer to vs or recesse farther from vs the affections and Qualities of things differ That this Heaven is the palace of the Almighty not onely the sacred Word but the constant opinion of all Nations justifies For though the Essence of God filleth all things and is not circumscribed by any limits yet by nature it is ingrafted in man in meditation and holy excercises to remooue his mind what in him lyes from earthly things and to advance it vnto heaven Wherefore wee pray vnto God with knees humbled to the Earth but with eyes lift vp to heaven the one of which expresseth our humility the other testifieth our Hope the one abates our pride the other doth advance our thoughts Neither without good Cause hath humane Reason placed the throne of God in Heaven For what more convenient habitation can there bee for God that mooveth all things then that Body by which hee mooueth all things What fitter seate can there be for the Father of Lights then that Region illustrious of it selfe and allwayes shining with its natiue splendor what more agreeable to the Nature of God who is the God of Peace and not subject vnto change then there to haue his throne where is everlasting Peace vntroubled rest nor signe of Change Hence it is as Iustinus observes in his Exhortation to the Greekes that Iupiter in Homer tooke Ate or Discord by the haires of the head and threw her headlong downe from heaven who fell on this lower Region which is shaken with Winds with tempests and with Earthquakes where there reignes Warre Tumult and Rebellion against God himselfe By these staires as it were the mind of Man ascends to the knowledge of God by this wing shee doth mount her selfe These are those backe parts of the Almighty which it is permitted to Man to see Exod. 33. to wit the workes of God which are knowen to us onely ex posteriori by the events and the effects Or rather by this doth not the Scripture giue us to understand that God comming cannot be perceived but after that hee hath passed by and strooke us then we know him For wee are altogether ignorant what God will doe but after the execution of the Act then wee acknowledge his power either by afflicting or delivering us Neither doth our Intention levell our Discourse to proue that there is a God whom the devils themselues acknowledge whom who denies he deserues rather the Executioner to torment him then the Philosopher to instruct him but these things are brought forth to shew on what weake rods Mans reason leaning hath yet upheld it selfe and strengthned that glimmering light which it had by Nature concerning the Divinity and how although imperfectly it hath arrived to the knowledge of a God As also to expound that which Saint Paul saith Act. 14. That God never left himselfe without witnesse which may be understood not onely of outward testimonies such as are raine and fruitfull seasons but may also be extended as well to the inward testimony of every Conscience as the outward testimony of the Creatures Neither by this doe I inferre that this Assertion that THERE IS A GOD is of the number of those which are knowen by their owne Nature Aristotle in the second of the Posteriors text 6. saith that those Enuntiations are knowen by Nature which are no sooner understood but they are beleeved As who understands what the WHOLE is and what a PART is hee cannot but know and beleeue that the whole is more then the parts thereof Neither can a man perswade himselfe to beleeue the contrary but this Assertion that THERE IS A GOD is not of that Nature For after the termes are understood there are found of those that dare deny him Although I beleeue they are but few in number yet every Age hath encounterd with many others who for all they acknowledge that there is a God doe yet deny his Providence for this opinion is most flatter'd and stroakd by vices and is most apt of all to unbutton to Intemperance but of those that haue altogether denyed God you sh●ll scarce find any one in any one Age It is manifest indeed that Diagoras Melius was accused of Atheisme not that hee denyed that there was a God but that hee despised the counterfeit Gods of the Athenians and their empty superstitions this is he that taking the wooden Statue of Hercules by the legge threw it into the fire thus upbrayding it This saith hee shall bee thy thirteenth labour and Clemens Alexandrinus in his booke intituled Protrepticon doth affirme that the same opinion is to bee had of Theodorus the Syrenian Evomerus Hippone Nicanor which were all accounted Atheists Hitherto therefore humane Reason hath not unhappily disputed for by the Conduct of Nature and assistance of Philosophy it hath come so farre as to affirme that there is a God But when they come to describe the Nature of God and endeavour themselves to satisfy the Question wherein it is demanded what God is a huge and thicke mist of ignorance doth overspread and cloud the sense and the light of God himselfe turnd into darknesse doth strike the Vnderstanding with blindnesse and astonishment Some there are as Plato Cicero and Virgil Aen. 6. who have thought that God is the Soule of the world who doth so moove and guide it as the soule doth the body Others have affirmed God to bee whatsoever is That of Euripides is well knowne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seest thou the Aires uncompast height about Seest thou the greatnes of the Earth throughout And what she doth in watry armes inclose Count all that God and doe it Iove suppose There have beene of them who have affirmed that God is a Circle whose center is every where and Circumference no where It is commonly reported how by long procrastinations Simonides deluded the demands of Hiero who desired to know what God was craving at first the liberty of one day to resolve him then two dayes afterwards three daily augmenting the number always acknowledging his inability to answer the request and that the more hee considered what God was the more the difficulties did arise and multiply The Iewes that they might shew the Essence of God to be inexplicable they would have the name of God unutterable and which neither could nor ought to be pronounc'd by man which the Angell who is also called God who wrastled with Iacob seemes to imply for Iacob defiring him to declare his Name he refus'd it saying Wherfore is it that thou dost aske after my name So the Angel who is called God also Iud. 13. checked the curiosity of Manoah who desired to know what his name was in these words Wherefore askest thou after my name seeing

eating of the Paschall Lambe the Israelites were to feed onely on the flesh and not to meddle with the bones so in the doctrine which instructs us in the knowledge of God wee must labour after those things which serue for the nourishment of our soule and abstaine from those which by their hardnesse would breake our teeth and turne the edge of our understanding then onely in the knowledge of God shall we obserue a meane betwixt an affected negligence and a sawcie curiositie when we shall referre all our knowledge and meditation to piety and manners and to the loue of God Le Sr de la Primaudaye en ses Quatrains L'aeuvre excellent des cieux l'entour le space Rendent leur Architecte admirable à tous yeux Mais sa divine loy restaurant l'ame en mieux L'esleue sur ce tout pour voire Dieu face à face The glorious Vault and fabricke of the skies Presents their wondrous Maker to all eyes Whose Law divine restoring soules by grace Mounts them o're all to see HIM face to face FINIS THE CHOICEST SENTENCES TAKEN out of this present treatise of the knowledge of GOD. In the collection onely whereof I have followed the Copy of Mounsieur Derelincourt Minister of the Hague which if they be thought either too tedious or impertinent it shall be some protection to me that I had so reverend an Example TRVTH is so affected to the Mind as Light unto the Eye Sect. 3. The true knowledge of God is the most absolute perfection of the mind Sect. 4. That in all Men is inherent an apprehension of a God it is manifest by experience and the testimony of all Ages amongst whom there is none so wild or barbarous that hath not received some forme of Religion and that established under most grievous penalties for this is no written but a natiue Law to which we are not taught but made not instructed by precepts but by the principles of Nature Sect. 7. From nothing to something is an infinite disproportion Sect. 24. As the beames of Light dispersed over all the World doe flow from one beginning namely the Sunne and as numbers proceed all from Vnity and in the Body of Man as all the Arteries and Vitall Faculties proceed from one heart so every Being doth depend and is sustayned by one chief and Soveraigne Being Sect. 24. God is not onely the efficient Cause of all things but the finall also as the Apostle witnesseth to the Hebrewes saying That God is for whom and by whom all things are Sect. 25. The End is alwayes the formost in the Intention and the Efficient Cause is moved by it ibid. Most true is that of Aristotle in his second booke de Gen. cap. 10. that the perpetuall durance and continuance of things ought to bee imputed to the Simple and daily Motion of the Sunne from the East into the West but that Generation and Corruption doth arise from the oblique course of the Sunne and planets through the Zodiack whiles according to their situation they change their Aspects and by their accesse neerer to us or recesse farther from us the Affections and the Qualities of the things doe differ Sect. 28 As the Essence of God cannot be exprest by words so it cannot be conceived by the Vnderstanding for a thing infinite cannot be comprehended by a thing finite and the inaccessible light of God doth dazle the understanding Sect. 39. From the diminution of the knowledge of God would arise a diminution of his loue and by the same contempt whereby the knowledge of the divine Nature is neglected the knowledge also of the divine Will would bee despised Sect. 42. The life of a Wise man is nothing else but a Returne to God and the way to God is by the study of Piety and Iustice Sect. 43. The Maker of time is before time and above it neither is his duration measured by it for as the infinitenesse of God doth not onely consist in this that hee is not circumscrib'd by limites but most especially in this that hee is all in every place so his eternity likewise consists not in this onely that he is without beginning and without end but rather in this that his life is not a motionary course but a perpetuall rest and in which there is no succession of parts Sect. 56. As to a man sitting on the banke of a Riuer only that water is present which is observed by him in that instant moment and poynt of time but that part of the River is not presented to his eyes which is not yet come to him or but now gone from him yet the same man were he exalted into the upper region of the aire might behold the whole River and at one aspect observe both the fountaine and the coruses of it so by the eye of God who is obove time together and in one moment is observed the whole flux of transitory things neither in him is there addition or subtraction because all things are present with him Se. 56. Those perfections which are diverse and scattered in the creatures in God are one and the same perfection Se. 57. God making the body of man of earth did conforme his mind to humility and a religious lowlinesse by remembring him of his descent and ignoble parentage Se. 67. The happinesse of men is not to be esteemed by the present condition of things but by the Counsaeile of God and last event of all things Sect. 71. It is necessary in the businesse of salvation to have God our leader and to make his word our rule Sect. 74. Because that man did fall by believing the words of the Devill it was fitting that man should be raysed from his fall by believing the Words of God for it was requisite that contrary Evills should bee cured by contrary Remedies Sect. 79. The Scripture teacheth that Man being first creaeted to the image of God indued with holinesse and righteousnesse revolted from God by his owne consent and the suggestion of the Devill whereupon sinne came into the world and by sinne death and malediction notwithstanding the image of God is not so deformed in man that there remains not certaine traces of it to wit a certaine apprehension of Divinity and some graines of Honesty and civill Iustice Sect. 95. Though God inhabits light which cannot be attained to yet in some manner he hath made himselfe visible in his Son who is the image of the invisible God and God with us whosoever shall endeavour to come to God by any other way he shall find him a Iudge and not a Father and the more he hasts the more he erres and headlong falls into a certaine ruine Sect. 99. Physicians doe rather suspect then see the inward affections of the Bodies and the causes of Diseases and hereupon it often comes to passe that in pretence of curing the diseased officiously they kill ihem Sect. 105. As there are may be gathered many and excellent fruits from the knowledge of God so this is above all the most principall that we cannot bridle in our vices or stop our desires in their careere with a stronger rein then with the knowledge of God for he that knowes God knowes him to bee a searcher into the secrets of the heart whose eyes cannot be curtaind with the flattering clouds of lying or hypocrisy to whom accounts are to be given of every idle word Sect. 111. To complaine of Gods providence as it is unrighteous so to oppose against is rash and dangerous Sect. 112. Without the knowledge of God it is impossible for us to know our selves for then the bubbles of our pride sinke downe and our plumes doe fall when we looke on God Sect. 114. Then only in the knowledge of God shall we observe a meane betwixt an affected negligence and a sawcy curiosity when we shall referre all our knowledge and meditation to piety and manners and to the love of God The End