Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	divine_a	reason_n	revelation_n	1,589	5	9.4988	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69664	Several discourses viz., I. of purity and charity, II. of repentance, III. of seeking first the kingdom of God / by Hezekiah Burton ...; Selections. 1684	Burton, Hezekiah, 1631 or 2-1681.	1684 (1684)	Wing B6179; Wing B6178; ESTC R17728	298,646	615

so formed that we can will nothing but what seems good And if we follow our natural Inclinations and seek after the greatest Perfection of Knowledg that will seem so to us which indeed is so III. A third way whereby the Will of God is notified to us is the Consent of Mankind at least of the generality and of all the wise and good when they shall agree that this ought and that ought not to be done we should look on that about which they are so agreed to be commanded or forbid us by God himself It is certain they think so for else they could not look on Mankind under Obligation there being none that has Authority to lay Commands on all Men but God himself But they do look on all Men as obliged to certain things as appears by their saying they ought to do so or so For this denotes an Obligation and that a Superiority Now there is none but God who is superiour to all Men to Kings as well as Subjects to Societies as well as to single Persons And yet of all these it is agreed that they ought or ought not to do several things Two things should here be spoken to 1. That this Consent of the Community is and may be looked on as a Declaration of the Divine Will 2. An Enumeration of some of those things in which they thus agree 1. It is not likely that Men of such different Capacities Tempers Interests Times and Places should agree in this if it were not certainly true and somewhat evident There must be some one cause of this so universal Effect and I know none to which it may so probably be imputed as this that the Wisdom which formed us has inspired us with this Knowledg which was either impressed on us at first or else our Minds did with an undiscernable quickness infer it That the Wise and the Vertuous agree that every Man ought that is in other Words that it is the Will of God that every Man should do this or not do it that is a sufficient Declaration to the rest of the World that it is indeed the Will of God For we may well suppose Men so qualified to have this Knowledg vouchsafed to them and that they are the Persons to whom God will especially make known his Laws But where not only they but all or the far greatest part of Mankind agree with them this makes the Testimony yet stronger and shews the Notoriety of the Thing And that there is a concurrence of the generality will appear by the Instances which I shall produce This Consent will at least amount to a high Probability and those who make least of it yet must think it to outweigh the sense of one or some few But where it is in concurrence with the other way it ought to be looked on as a farther publication of the Divine Law and a confirmation to us that this is it 2. The Community of Men tho they have never seen nor discoursed with each other tho they live at the remotest distance and understand not one anothers Language nor ever maintained any Converse yet agree in abundance of Particulars Which I must not now enumerate Take these few 1. That we should all live soberly that is in such a government of our Appetites and Passions as to be in the best use of our Understandings and of all our Faculties that Men should not indulge their brutish life so much at any time as to lose the use of themselves and to have the sense of what is good and evil fit and unfit extinguished or the care of doing what becomes us laid aside That what we do in compliance with our bodily Appetites be rather a relief than a gratification that it be not a thing in which we take a full and final satisfaction but that it be subservient to some greater and better work Tho all Men may not thus express themselves yet these are their Thoughts and tho many practise otherwise yet it is without the allowance and against the sense of their Minds Or if any have brought themselves to such a Reprobacy of Mind as to call Good Evil and Evil Good they are by the rest looked on as Monsters and their Judgment is of no value nay in their sober intervals they condemn themselves Thus then not only the Wise and the Good but the rest of Mankind are of the Mind that Men should live soberly 2. That we should be just and honest true and faithful in our dealings and conversation one with other And that we should do to all Men as we would have them do to us Even those Men that are unrighteous will yet blame that in others which they practise themselves And those very Societies which are Factions bandying against the common Society of Men are yet upheld by Truth and Justice among themselves 3. Besides these I might mention Gratitude to Benefactors Honour to Parents Veneration of the Deity Pity of the Miserable and many more such things In which all Mankind agree excepting a very few Monsters that are using all the Arts they can devise to un-man and un-make themselves Now whence can so universal an Agreement arise but from Nature it self And that which derives from Nature must be thought to proceed from the Counsel of the Author of Nature to whom all such things are seen and by whom they are allowed and consequently must be reckoned as his Will IV. God has inspired some holy Men with the knowledg of his Will which by them has been delivered to others and it has been made credible to all that this was indeed the Will of God and by him in a very extraordinary manner revealed to the inspired Persons And this partly from the sublimity and excellency of the matter contained in it partly from the fitness the usefulness the necessary importance the great goodness of it to Men both which argue it to come from him who only knows such things and is the great lover of Mankind The Phrase and Stile also are such as do not misbecome so wise and great an Author And then the Miracles wrought in confirmation of it by some of the Pen-men and by others who owned them to be divinely inspired Particularly the Prophecies and Predictions which are punctually fulfilled c. Such a revelation of the Divine Will we have in the Bible that part especially which is in the Gospel where we have a clear and full declaration of all that which by Nature and Reason and the Sense of Mankind we were taught was the Will of God That which the Wise and the Good came to understand in those ways the Unlearned and Inconsidering and all to whom thes● Oracles come are instructed and satisfied in by them Thus God has dealt with Men in the same manner that our Earthly Lawgivers have done that is he has caused his Laws to be Printed and Published And the Bible is the Divine Pandects and Code 'T is Heaven's

will be done with least pains and difficulty And 3dly with most certainty wen our Endeavours will be most effectual A Time when any Action is the best or as good as any that can be done is the season of that Action that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Opportunity simply so called And when that action is not only the best that can be done but can also be best done at that time this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Opportunity The former we find Heb. 11. 15. the latter in St. Mat. 26. 16. All our Actions depend 1st on our own Power the inward Principle from whence they proceed 2dly on the Concurrence of Divers External Causes which make us act with more ease and in less time and more surely to effect what we endeavour According to this we may be said to have an Opportunity of doing good to Men whenever we can do it and when we have so much assistance from External Causes as that we can best i. e. with most ease and quickness and certainly do what we intend As i. e. When and whilst as soon and as oft as we have Opportunity Do not over-run do not stay behind but accompany the Season take the Tide set up your Sails when the Wind is with you lose no time slip no opportunity and whilst that lasts let us continue up and be doing with the first Light and hold on till the Night come when no Man can Work Let us do Let us not only think of doing good and talk but do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be our Work our Business our Trade that in which we employ our selves the word implies Care and Diligence and perhaps Pains in acting The thing to be done Good requires more Power to effect it than Evil does Very impotent things can do great Mischiefs but they must be Powerful that do any great Good Besides We had need thus to work in this Business of doing Good because we shall find Difficulty and meet with Opposition in it Our corrupted Natures are very backward to it it is contrary to the Practice of this degenerate World Let us use our Endeavour to do what we can And let none reflect on the Wisdom of that Divine Spirit by which St. Paul writ nor so deny their own Sense as to say they can do nothing this is but a Plea for Idleness and Unwillingness to do good by the same reason they may also say they cannot walk nor speak For all our Power both for the one and the other is from God originally But what is that which we are to do Let us do Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that which is profitable behooveful beneficial and advantagious By this Word we are here and every where when it is used of Creatures to understand that which conduces to the Preservation and Perfection of their Beings and Powers When we call any thing good we refer it always to something or other Here it is applied to Men and we understand by it particularly Wisdom and Vertue inward Quiet and Pleasure Life and Health and all those Circumstances which contribute towards the getting and securing of these Perfections Briefly that which has a tendency to Man's attaining his End his Perfection and Happiness that we call Good To do Good to Men is to do those Actions which tend to make them as perfect as is possible for them and to bring them into the happiest Circumstances they can be in Vnto all Men i. e. not to our selves only but to them that partake of our Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to A●● This doubtless means Men. But yet our Kindness to them is not exclusive of other inferior Animals The good Mom is merciful to his Beast And as the Ointment poured on Aaron ' s Head ran down to the lowest ●●m of his Garinent so the Beneficence of a good Man is so diffusive that it reaches the lowest parts of the Creations of God of which according to Philo the High-Priest's Vestment was an Emblem Indeed our Goodness as the Psalmist speaks extends not unto God and very little to Angels farther than it excites and occasions their greater Joy But it may to the Saints that are on Earth and to all our Brethren the Sons of Adam and to the Cro●tures of a lower kind which God has made to serve us But our Apostle here means Men all that have rational Souls and Bodies of the same Make with our selves and capable of as great Happiness or Misery He requires us to do Good to all these to exclude none whether they be Acquaintance or Strangers our Countrey-men or Foreigners Friends or Enemies all tho of contrary Persuasions or of bad Practices all and every one We are to aim at the Happiness of every Man to endeavour the Perfection and good State of All. An unlimited Love an unconsined Charity is here required and a selfish or a contracted Affection are here excluded where-ever Man is Love is to be But is there no difference to be made Yes in case of a Competition of opposite Interests some are to be preferred above and before others So the Apostle directs in the following Words Especially to them who are of the Houshold of Faith i. e. who are of the Houshold or Family of God by Faith as Grotius expounds it i. e. the Children and Servants of God which they are in an especial manner who believe and obey the Gospel the Disciples and Followers of Christ Jesus whose Life was in nothing more remarkable in nothing so imitable by us as in Benignity and Kindness and universal Charity They who by Faith obey him are of the Family of God God takes especial care and provides for them he takes them as it were under his Roof and Harbour They profess and practise the best Religion in the World And altho they may be ignorant of or mistaken in some Matters yet they believe and understand so much as makes them deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World to love other Men so as they do to them as themselves would be dont ●o by them and to love and trust in their God who made and redeem'd and sanctifies and will eternally save them Let them be of the Eastern or Western Church let them dwell in the North or South let their Differences be what they will if they be as I have described they are the chief Objects of our Care and Benevollence We are to do good to them chiefly tho not only Having thus briefly gloss'd on all the Words I shall treat chiefly of that Clause Let us do Good into All i. e. to the Community of Mankind and to all Particulars A Man may be deceived whilst he is contemplating Generals only unless he descend to Particulars An Idea of Human Nature is a lovely thing no Man thinks of it but is pleased with it

to understand by Nature the Corruptions and Depravations of it So many that declaim against Nature interpret that Phrase 1 Cor. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which should be rendred the animal Man the Man that lives the Life of a mere Animal one that hath not the Reason and Understanding of a Man By Nature therefore I understand here 1. Nature in General 2. Particularly that part of humane Nature which is common to Man with inferior Torts of Beings 3. That wherein he differs from and excells them and agrees with those that are better 1. As for Nature in general it is observable that all Beings do by their motions and alterations conspire to the preserving of the Universe that they do not more endeavour their own Good and Continuance than the Good of the Whole Nay many times they leave their own proper Tendencies and seem to neglect as it were their private Concerns to promote the more Publick and Universal This is so obvious to every Observation and there are so many Instances of it in both animate and inanimate Bodies that I need not insist upon it I shall only mind you of another almost as common as this that Animals of the same kind are loving and helpful to each other and do not only associate and herd together but will also expose themselves to danger for their mutual Defence and other good Offices But I go on further and more particularly 2. To that part of Nature which is in Man common to him with other Animals his Body how does every Part minister to other and all of them conspire to preserve and perfect the whole How is Nourishment conveyed from one to another through the whole Body And when it is thus with it the Body is in its natural good State of Health If it be otherwise if one Part draw all the Nourishment to it self it is then diseased and this tends to the Dissolution of the whole and consequently of that Part it self which does not distribute Add to this what the Naturalists have observ'd that no Passion is more agreeable to Man's Body than Love which is the Principle of doing Good that nothing contributes more to his Health nor is a more certain Argument of it than Good-will that the very Body of Man is never in better State than when he is most enclined to do good Offices And that the Motions which maintain Life are then most equally vigorous when we are in the Exercise of Charity and Compassion 3. This is no less congruous to the Nature of Man as distinguished from all other Animals it is agreeable to the Mind and Reason of Man Hear the Sence of an honest Heathen which is the Voice of Nature not of Revelation Saith he to his Friend Qui tibi amicus est scito hunc omnibus amicum esse Again Non sum uni angulo natus Patria mea est totus hic Mundus Nor was it only one but many of the Philosophers that called themselves Citizens of the World not that they forgot their Native Country but they remembred their Relation to the whole They look'd on themselves in the same order to the Universe which others do to the Town where they were born and dwell Again Posterorum res ago He did not content himself to be a Benefactor to the present Age but would take care also that those that should be born after should receive advantage by his Labours and so they have Lucan says of Cato and as many as speak of him say the same Hi mores haec dura immota Catonis Secta fuit servare modum finemque tenere Naturamque sequi Patriaeque impendere vitam Non sibi sed toti genitum se credere Mundo Thus we see Nature taught the very Heathens And I do the more willingly insist on this Argument from Nature because I cannot think that the God of Nature being also the Author of our Religion should make this inconsistent with that or destructive of it And because by this means we shall have a great assistance both in the understanding of our Duty and in making us willing to do it Had this been duly observ'd Men had never sacrificed their Sons to Moloch And if this be received one of the greatest Objections against our being Religious vanishes In general then If it be natural for the Soul of Man before it be corrupted with any of those Passions that are the off-spring of Folly to observe and be affected with the welfare and ill State of others besides it self If it be displeased and unquiet and griev'd when it goes ill with them and joyed and delighted to see them in good Plight then it 's natural to it to will and endeavour their good and welfare The Understanding of Man is a large and unlimited kind of thing it reaches forth it self to all Beings and views them and wherever it sees Good it loves and desires the continuance and when it observes Evil it 's troubled and wishes it were not and will endeavour it may not be And if this be natural to the Mind of Man unaltered by wicked Practices and foolish Passions then it is natural to it to do good universally and then certainly to all Mankind Again it 's natural to the Soul of Man to love Pleasure and to pursue it and to be averse from whatsoever displeases it Now nothing can be the object of Pleasure but Good or if any Evil be 't is only in order to what is Good and as it serves that i. e. as it is good in Reality No Man can be delighted to see any Beings in an ill Plight or if he be he is in an unnatural state himself and his Soul is corrupted More particularly and distinctly If we understand by natural that which proceeds from an inward Principle and which tends to preserve and perfect Nature in general and particularly that which is a Conclusion deriv'd from Principles of Reason and clear Discourses for that 's natural to Man which is rational then I will use this Method to evince that all this which is here required is agreeable to Nature in general and to humane Nature in Particular 1st It 's natural for us to be acting If we either conform to the rest of the Beings we live with in the World or act agreeably to our own Natures we must be doing The best Philosophers assure us that in the vast Universe there is not one little Particle that is idle but the World and all in it are in uncessant motion tho' some Bodies that move more slowly and less discernibly than others are said to be at rest Whether we climb up into Heaven or dive into the Sea or dig into the Bowels of the Earth we shall find all Beings employed and busy nothing idle The Heavenly Bodies are whirling about perpetually the Waters cease not to run and in the Caverns of the Earth which might be imagined the dens of Sleep yet the Mines are made And