Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	eternal_a	holy_a	son_n	7,025	5	5.5036	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96858	Gnōston tou Theou, k[a]i gnōston tou Christou, or, That which may be knovvn of God by the book of nature; and the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ by the Book of Scripture. Delivered at St Mary's in Oxford, by Edward Wood M.A. late proctor of the University and fellow of Merton Coll. Oxon. Published since his death by his brother A.W. M.A.	Wood, Edward, 1626 or 7-1655.; Wood, Anthony à, 1632-1695.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3387; Thomason E1648_1; ESTC R204118	76,854	234

to bestow any further light upon any it comes to passe that the Gentiles being not able to walke according to the knowledge they primitively had are left without excuse So then the Essentiall Primary end of the Light of Nature and the Creatures was to instruct man in the knowledge and true worship of God the consequentiall if I may so terme it and accidentary end is to the intent that they may be without excuse This shall suffice concerning the words themselves on which I have been the larger because the Exposition of them may give much light to my ensuing discourse which shall be grounded upon this proposition viz. That God though in his owne Nature invisible may yet by a Gentile a meere Naturall man be reacht unto and discovered in his Workes For the better clearing of this Point it will be convenient to distinguish concerning the Workes of God which are either ad intra or ad extra those ad intra are such which have no other object then God himselfe and are eternally bounded within his owne nature such as are the Eternall generation of his Sonne and Proceeding of the Holy Ghost now as no one knoweth the inward workings and contrivances of the mind save the spirit of a man or he to whom he revealeth them in like manner there is no one that can fath om or dive into these inward essentiall Workes of God save God himselfe or those to whom his Word hath communicated them nay indeed the best Saints of God in this their Earthly Tabernacle though never so much enlightened by his Word and Spirit cannot perfectly know or conceive these his ineffable Workes and Mysteries True they may substantially and in generall know that such Workes there be for they are revealed in his Word but then the strange manner of the Generation of the one and Proceeding of the other that admirable Energy and divine Reflexion by which he understands himselfe from all Eternity they cannot but by Analogy faint resemblances and conjectures apprehend much lesse then can a meere Naturall man a Gentile discover and trace either God in these Workes or these Workes in God The second sort of Gods Workes are those ad extra viz. such whose effect is in something without himselfe or whose proper subject is the Creature and these again are either such which do chiefly concerne us in another case as the Election of some unto salvation and reprobation of other unto damnation or else such which immediately concerne either the Being or Preservation of the Creature in this world and these properly are the Workes of Creation and Providence from these chiefly I say it is that a Naturall man knowes God This we shall prove First in the Works of Creation Secondly in the Workes of Providence And first we shall shew in generall that the Creatures in themselves doe every where set forth and proclaime a God Secondly we shall shew by what wayes and meanes the Creatures doe thus bring us unto the knowledge of God 1. First then that the creatures doe every where proclaime a God is manifest from Psal 19. 1 2 3 4. the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke c. That glorious canopy which we behold above us however in it selfe mute and dumbe doth yet notwithstanding set forth as it were unto us a declaration of it's Creatour's Power Goodnesse and Wisdome of his power in the framing and contriving so excellent a piece of his Goodnesse in ordering all it's Motions and Revolutions unto the benefit of his Creatures and of his Wisdome in allotting it so commodious a position and structure unto the performance of those offices to which he hath ordained it and so vers 2. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge that is doth sufficiently Discipline and Instruct men in the knowledge of God so that the most sottish and rude Gentile cannot plead ignorance For what though their Philosophers alone could tell the severall vertues and influences of the Starres the periodicall motion of the Sun Moon their just Horizontall elevation and depression and the like yet day unto day and night unto night doth sufficiently shew forth even to the most ignorant who is the Authour of this their Succession and Revolution for so the Psalmist goes on vers 3 4. there is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard their line Scriptura ipsorum their writing is gone out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world Marke here how the Creatures are made the praecones as it were of God the Cryers and Heraulds of his glory Doubtlesse there is a certaine kind of dumbe eloquence even in Inanimate Creatures to perswade men to subscribe unto the mighty Creatour of all things Wherefore it was not without some cause that Hermes an Auncient Philosopher among the Heathens called the world the Image of God for as the coine of a King doth represent the King whose coine it is or as in the beholding of a curious Edifice we cannot choose but in it admire the Art and Dexterity of the Artificer in like manner the admirable structure of this neat Vniverse the curious and subordinated disposition which one creature hath to another the exact Symmetry and proportion of each part unto the whole must needs lead us unto the Creatour of them and cause us to admire the infinite Power and Perfection of him who out of nothing could raise so glorious a fabrick As then Protogenes at the very sight of a curious picture did presently guesse it to be the workmanship of Apelles because he knew that none could doe the like so likewise in the contemplation of these glorious Creatures of God we may straightway conclude him to be the Authour of them because they are beyond the contrivance and art of any other For there is no finite being that can make or adde one haire unto our heads much lesse can contribute any sense life or vitall motion unto any thing Many men indeed as Zeuxis Albertus Magnus and others have endeavoured to imitate the God of nature in his workes but never could any one by all his Apish art frame a naturall and reall creature for besides the limitednesse of his Nature the narrownesse of his Vnderstanding the inabilities of him to find out the true forme and peculiar operations of all things there is a certaine stubbornesse and disobedience if I may so speake in the matter it selfe whereby it scornes as it were to be wrackt and tortured into another forme then what the Soveraigne of all things is pleased to impresse upon it God can out of dust build a man but t' is impossible for any man be he of the most exquisite wit invention and judgment as he will ever to raise the least contemptible Creature out of the most refined Matter It remaineth therefore that the most minute inconsiderable least thing in the world doth