Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A06685
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The soules pilgrimage to a celestial glorie: or, the perfect vvay to heaven and to God. Written by J.M. Master of Arts
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Monlas, John.; Maxwell, James, b. 1581, attributed name.
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1634
(1634)
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STC 17141; ESTC S102722
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91,677
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186
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affection that so wee may come neare this burning bush this fearefull fire Gods divine justice The Oracle of Apollo being once enquired what was the most pleasingst thing of God after his ordinary manner hee answered ambiguously and obscurely Dimidium sphaerae sphaeram cum principe Româ— An answer most true though it came from the father of lies for a C is the halfe of a Sphere an O is a Sphere and the beginning of the word Rome is an R which letters put together make COR that is the heart and questionlesse it is the most pleasingst gift that can bee offered unto God and which no man can justly refuse him The poore may say I cannot give almes the sicke I cannot goe to Church I can neither watch nor pray but none can say I cannot love God for thy other defects may be excused by thy poverty or sicknesse but to refuse God with thy heart it cannot be excused but by malice as S. Augustine very learnedly saith Let us remember that how charitable so ever our actions be if our heart doe not goe before to enlighten them all of them will tumble downe together into the obscure darknesse of the deepe Our actions are of no value without the heart but the heart may bee good without the actions God had respect to Abel and afterwards to his offering the good Thiefe to obtaine mercy gave nothing but his heart Marie Magdalene but her teares and Saint Peter but sighes and lamentations proceeding from the depth of his soule Now that this heart may be pleasing and acceptable to God it must be cleare bright and shining to the end that as in a glasse God may see his owne image and likenesse after which he at the first created it and when it is once cleane and pure then right so and in that manner we must keepe it in the same glorious estate for Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri And to that end we must imitate the Bees which to hinder the drones and spiders from comming into their Hives to corrupt or devoure their honey stop the entries of them with bitter and stinging hearbs as good Husbandmen who enclose their grounds lest passengers or the wild beasts should spoile them Even so should wee alwayes keepe the passages of our senses of our hearts and of our thoughts fenced with the feare of God which is a bitter Rue and Wormwood that the devill cannot endure to tast or relish Marke and observe with me the care and diligence which is used to conserve Christall and China Dishes what paines are taken to keepe them cleane bright and shining because they are deare and rare And what can wee finde in this world more precious and rare then our heart then let us with a diligent care and carefull sollicitude seeke the cleanenesse and purity thereof following the Apostles counsell Let every one possesse his vessell with sanctification and honour 1. Thess 4.4 When a vessell is cleft or crack it is unfit to containe any liquid thing Now the wicked heart is a crackt vessell saith Eccles. chap. 21. A broken heart threatneth death to a living creature as a Ship split and torne with the violence of the waves threatneth undoubted death ruine and shipwrack so that heart that is not well united to God that is broken and shattered by the force of worldly affections threatneth and fore-telleth an infallible ruine and destruction To fill a vessell in a Well or in a Fountaine we must needs bend it downwards so must we humble our heart to fill it with heavenly graces I have enclined my care and I have received wisedome saith the wise man Sap. 61. Againe we know that none can fill a vessell with any good and wholesome liquor wherein there is some corrupted before he first empty it and make it very cleane If we desire to fill our hearts with the love and other graces of God wee must first expell and exempt the love and delights of this world that have beene so long resident there and then when wee have done those things we shall be sure fully to enjoy the inestimable effects of this divine promise Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. In this second part wee have demonstrated unto us the reason why Christ calleth the pure in heart Blessed it is saith he because they shall see GOD. This conjunction for joyning those two sentences sheweth and marketh out unto us the reason of this felicity and happinesse that cannot receive a name enough emphaticall and significant to represent to our senses and to our understandings the least beame the least spark the least drop of that inexhaustible Ocean of that devouring fire of that Sunne of righteousnesse whose brightnesse if we should undertake to contemplate it would strike us blinde whose immense depth if wee should search it would swallow us up whose burning heat if wee approach it would convert us to ashes and would make us pay deere for our curiosity The Poets faine that the Giants attempting to clime up to heaven were thunder-stricken as they were heaping Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa one mountaine upon another A fable derived from that truth taught us in the Scripture touching the building of the Tower of Babell whose Builders were shamefully confounded the Allegorie of this truth the morality of this fable sets forth unto us the curiosity of them who thinking to pierce too farre into Gods secrets are cast downe into a deepe Abisse of confusion by their audacious presumption Empedocles desiring to know the cause why mount Aetna did cast forth such flames was swallowed and devoured by them God indeed depresseth and dejecteth the proud designes of those that are so rash as to discourse of that which is altogether ineffable and incomprehensible but yet is so gracious and favourable that he enlightneth and fortifieth those that with feare humility approach the greatnesse of his mysteries as David teacheth us Psalm 2.11 Serue the Lord in feare and reioyce with trembling And Solomon his sonne Those that trust in the Lord shall understand the truth and the faithfull shall know hit love Then with the spirit of feare and humility we are to seeke after this hidden glory and under the vayle of faith which teacheth us to beleeve the things which wee see not nor cannot be the object of our senses Hope will make us desire them Charity to love them and the gracious goodnesse of God will helpe us to attaine them O blessed them shall be the pure in heart for they shall see God St. Iohn Chap. 17. saith This is life eternall to know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent And in the 1. Epist of Saint Iohn chap. 3. Beloved now we are the sonnes of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when he shall appeare wee shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is And every man
infamie and how is hee counted among the children of God and hath his portion among the Saints Blessed then are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God This word Childe of God is diversly taken in Scripture and according to the Hebrew phrase this word Sonne signifieth him that is vowed and ordained to any thing so we reade Saint Math. 9.15 The children of the Bridechamber that is those that are ordained for the wedding cannot mourne as long as the Bridegroome is with them And Saint Iohn 17.12 While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the Sonne of perdition that is he that was ordained to destruction but this kind of speech toucheth not our text But let us say that this word Sonne of God is comonly attributed in Scripture either to Iesus Christ and being the naturall Sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantiall and coeternall with his Father of the same will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and same power with him being both true God and true man the divine nature neither confounding nor destroying the humane and the humanity not being mingled and changed into the Godhead both natures remaining entire and perfect make but one person He I say is called the Sonne of God by the acknowledgement and confession of the Father himselfe Math. 17.5 When Iesus Christ tooke with him Peter Iames and Iohn and brought them up into an high mountain and being transfigured before them they heard a voyce from heaven saying This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him We read also the same words in the 3. Chap. 17. ver of the same Evangelist The Father and the Sonne sunt relata say the Philosophers are relatives that is are referred the one to the other for there is no Father but there must likewise be a Sonne whence I draw this conclusion That God the Father being such that is having that title and quality before the Creation of the world consequently Iesus Christ was before it also his generation then is immediatly from the Father as being begotten of him from all eternity by a way incomprehensible to us for In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God Iohn 1.1 And in the 1. Chap. to the Heb. ver 5. unto which of the Angels saith he at any time Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee And againe I will be to him a Father and hee shall be to me a Sonne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee is not then called Sonne by adoption or for respects of love or for any consideration but onely because hee is begotten of the Father before the Creation of all things as wee reade Coloss 1.15 He is the Image of the inuisible God the first borne of every creature which is prooved againe out of the 1. Chap. of Saint Iohn ver 18. No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father hee hath declared him Vpon this place Hilarius li. 6. saith that Hoc nomine vnigeniti adoptio de trinitate excluditur natura magis asseritur By this word onely begotten adoption is excluded from the Trinitie and nature the more confirmed And Saint Chrysostome very subtilly Christum non eodem modo quo caeteri homines unigenitum dici nam caeteros quidem quod soli ex parentibus nati sint unigenitos dici Christum non solum quod solus ex patre sed etiam quod singulari ineffabili modo natus est unigenitum appellari Christ is not called the onely Sonne after the sort of other men who are called such because they are borne alone to their Parents now Christ is not called the onely Sonne in that respect alone that he is the onely naturall Sonne of his Father but also because he hath beene begotten by a speciall and ineffable way But whither doth the winde of our discourse carrie us why doe we touch this divine subject more worthy of admiration then capable of description wee shall more lively describe it by our silence then by our obscure representations Neverthelesse for satisfaction to our curiosity which is never contented with reason and that will not be contained within the limits of civility and modesty let us bring one onely comparison to give us some sparke of knowledge of this ineffable generation of the Sonne of God When a man seeth himselfe in a well polished glasse he presently seeth his image and the figure of himselfe having the same markes and motions with his which is caused by the reflection of the species within the eye and there is so great a relation betweene the species and the image that one cannot be taken away without annihilating the other and although both the sight and reason make us see that they are severall things truth also and experience makes us know that those two things subsist by one onely Essence and that both have but one and the same subsistance to wit that of the species opposite to the glasse So God from all Eternity contemplating his divine Essence made such a reflection upon his person that of this reflection hee produced and begot that eternall Wisedome which is the Saviour and Redeemer of our soules the sooner we can goe from this matter is our best for wee should be like them that will paint and represent the Sunne with a coale And indeede how should it be possible that we that are poore Owles and Batts should behold so great a light how should wee that are poore Pismires stirre so great mountaines We shall sooner put the whole sea in the palme of our hands then wee can any way comprehend this large and spatious ocean of the divine generation within the little compasse of our understanding Since then that we cannot ascend so high let us stop and stay our contemplation upon our selues where we shall have a more free accesse and continuing our first discourse let us remember that we may be called the children of God three wayes 1. First the Scripture maketh mention of the naturall generation of Christ individuall and incommunicable to any other but to him onely There is a filiation or not to speake barbarously with the Schoolemen the Scripture giveth this title of Sonne of God to the Angels and Princes of the earth which is a title of honour and affection as wee read Iob 1.6 Now there was a day when the sonnes of God that is the Angels came to present themselues before the Lord and Satan came also among them And Genes 6.4 When the sonnes of God came in unto the daughters of men The seaventy Interpreters by the sonnes of God here understand the Angels but Saint Augustine in the Citie of God by the sonnes of God understandeth the children of Seth which