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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	church_n	scripture_n	unwritten_a	2,749	5	12.4307	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75459	Gods presence mans comfort: or, Gods invisibilitie manifested unto mans capacitie. The heads of which tractate were delivered in a sermon at the Abbey of Westminster, and since enlarged for the benefit of the Church of God. / By the Lords unprofitable servant, Ch. Anthony. Imprimatur: Ja. Cranford.	Anthony, Charles, 1600-1685.	1646 (1646)	Wing A3477; Thomason E328_1; ESTC R8561	58,663	111

4. 12. time yet is his invisibility manifested and understood in the things created for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God is manifested in the Rom. 1. 19. creatures namely his eternall power and Godhead As the exquisite skill of a workman is discerned by his work so is the wisdome and power of God perspicuously manifested ex operibus by his works Whether you consider the nature of the heavens or the influence of the starres or the motion of the planets or the various and terrible meteors or the creatures in the aire earth or seas how strange they are for forme how innumerable for multitude or if you consider him in one of his most excellent and admirable miracles namely the variety of the visages of so many millions of men not one exactly and in all parts like unto another which Plinie notes In facie vultuque nostro Lib. 10. Hist. Nat. nullas duas in tot millibus hominum indiscretas effigies existere quod ars nulla in paucis numero praestet affectando all which are a large Commentary of the divine Essence and Wisdome of Almighty God And again that all things should be made of nothing solo nutu verbo absque labore onely by his command and word not by any labour this shews his eternall Omnipotency Ens ex ente producere est potentiae creatae ens verò ex non ente vel ex ente indisposito est potentiae increatae which I will English thus To erect a curious fabrick having convenient materials is the skill of every common artist but to erect a curious fabrick out of base materials requires more then ordinary skill But now to erect so curious a fabrick as is the whole Universe and that out of nothing onely By speaking the word this needs must be the finger Exod. 8. 19. of God Thus Beloved have you heard how that God hath left his footsteps imprinted in his works so that man cannot be altogether without the knowledge of God In omni re aspectabili quaedam extant Vel palpando inveniri potest Deus Tilen Dei vestigia in every thing visible some print of Gods footsteps is impressible by which man may if hee will track and finde out his Creator or else be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judge to pronounce sentence of condemnation for his wilfull ignorance against himselfe for God by his works hath left man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without all excuse In a word God by his works exhibits himselfe to a man to see if man will by them seek and search after him The works of the Lord are great saith the Psalmist sought Psal 111. 2. out of all that have pleasure therein So then delight may be taken by viewing God in the creatures Yet more apparently doth God manifest himselfe By the booke of the Scriptures to man in the book of the Scriptures Although then man may sufficiently reade the Wisdome Justice Power Goodnesse and Providence of God in the book of the Creatures yet because for the most part hee beholdeth the creatures but slightly and with a glancing eye for hee seldome looks farther into them then they stand him in stead very seldome hee either sees or observes God in them and if hee is purblind in things naturall and such as are obvious to his sight no marvell if thick scales cloud his eyes concerning things supernaturall and spirituall God therefore who is abundant in goodnesse exhibits himselfe to man by a farre clearer light namely by his word and Sacraments by which as through a prospective man may discern him and yet every man hath not this glorious priviledge for Hee hath not dealt so with every nation the Psal 147. 20. heathen have no knowledge of his law it is onely his Spouse that can discerne him in them The naturall 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit This peculiar blessing wee shall apply unto our selves by Gods gracious assistance God in his great mercy hath affoorded this favour to us more then to many other people in the world which argues his wonderfull love that he beareth unto us Blessed be his name hee hath taken away the scales from our eyes as hee did from Sauls at his conversion by giving unto us his Acts 9. 18. word and sacraments by which wee may see him cleerly if we will O pray we then that he would be pleased to annoint our eyes with heavenly eye-salve Rev. 3. 18. and that hee would give us the eye of true faith that so wee may see him in them for else as the light of the Sun is not discerned by a blinde man although the Sun shine never so brightly even so this supernaturall light in the Scriptures is not seen by any who have not the eye of their souls opened by faith Some have been so Atheisticall as to doubt whether there were a God or not and consequently to deny his word but when what through the terrors and affrightments of their own consciences together with the observation of the order and governance of all things they could not deny a supreme power the Divell sought to delude them by faining that this God was of some corporeall substance and that hee spake unto them by his lying Oracles by this policie the Divell deluded many and hindred them the knowledge of the true God Others again grant that there is a God and yeeld that hee hath a written word yet blush not blasphemously to say Meliùs consultum fuisse Ecclesiae Observat Tilen de orig sac Scrip. Thes 35. si nulla unquam extitisset Scriptura that it had been happier for the Church if there never had been any Scripture therefore blasphemously stiling it Theologiam atramentariam Thus impudently controlling the wisdome of God who was pleased thereby to make himselfe knowne unto his Spouse the Church Another sort there are who equall their unwritten verities in authoritie unto the sacred Scriptures and most grossely abuse both the letter and the sense of the Scriptures thus making the invention of man of like authority with the word of God which was given by the inspiration of the 2 Tim. 3. 16. holy Ghost God hath blessed be his name miraculously preserved the Scriptures in their genuine puritie maugre the furie of King Jehojachim who burnt the roll that Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jer. 36. 23. the Prophet Jeremiah or maugre the madnesse of 1 Mac. 1. 56 57. Antiochus and other tyrants who sought utterly to Pro libito mutare vel addere demere quicquam Crashaw on Romes forgeries abolish the books of God extant in their dayes or maugre the sacrilegious policy of the Papists who have corrupted it in the text So that if any shall now ask What is meant by the Scriptures I answer Not mens traditions nor the unwritten verities of the superstitious Papists which they equalize with the pure word

laborious oxen or not yea then it shall appear whether their seed be pure wheat which may yeeld a plentifull crop fit to be stored up in Gods granary or tares fit only to be cast into the fire Nor is it Right Worshipfull that I have adventured out of any conceit of worth in my selfe to expose this ensuing Discourse to the view of the world in this censorious age but partly to satisfie the requests of some who were auditors of the chiefe points thereof delivered in a Sermon in the Abbey in Westminster and partly to expresse a gratefull heart to this Honourable Committee whom my selfe with many others are bound to honour for your vigilancy and care Solomon tels us that hee that hath friends must shew himself Prov. 18. 24. friendly for there is a friend that sticketh closer then a brother And which way can I expresse my respects and service I owe you any other wayes then by imparting unto your Worships some of my weak labours Greater gifts you need not higher prized I cannot I may say with the Apostles Peter and John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I humbly crave pardon Act. 3. 6. for my presumption in fleeing to the arms of this Honourable Court for patronage of this small Tract whom I know to be religiously devoted to religious exercises and to accept of this mite thrown into Gods treasury God gave liberty where ability was wanting to offer under the Law in stead of a lamb a paire of turtle doves or two young pigeons It may through Gods blessing enrich as well those who shall read it as I hope it hath those who have heard it It is not clothed with the rich embroiderings of humane eloquence and wisdome of words I rather choose the Scripture phrase as best suting to the capacitie and conscience of my countrey Auditory amongst whom I have enlarged it and of such as may read it Vouchsafe it I humbly intreat your protection and you shall sufficiently reward him whose prayers to God for you shall be that you may be filled with a large measure of grace in this life and rewarded with a full measure of glory in the life to come this he cordially wisheth who is devoted to be Your Wor ps to be commanded in all Christian service CH. ANTHONY West-Hoadligh in Com. Sussex GODS PRESENCE MANS COMFORT CANT 2. 9. Behold hee standeth behind our wall hee looketh forth at the window shewing himselfe at the lattesse MOst worthily is this Book called Cantica Canticorum not because it was penned by the wisest of men that ever was born of a woman by a natural generation but because in it is set down in a most patheticall and mutuall colloquie the unspeakable love betwixt Christ and his Church under the similitude of a Beloved and his Spouse In the verse foregoing the Text as also in the former part of this verse the Church compares her Beloved for his care love and diligence in hasting to bring comforts unto her to a Roe or yong Hart Behold saith shee hee cometh leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hils In the words of the Text shee rejoiceth in that shee enjoyeth his presence thereby pergustans suavitatem amoris Lyra. future ae beatitudinis having got a relish of his love and a taste of her own future happinesse though not so fully and perfectly as shee would or as shee desired nor as hereafter shee shall yet in that she hath as it were a glimpse of his person whom she longed to enjoy shee exulteth in the words of the Text Behold he standeth behind our wall c. In which words without wresting flow these five particulars 1. God cannot be seen by the eye of mortall man because of the wall of his flesh 2 Yet God is pleased to exhibite himselfe to man four wayes 1. By voice 2. By the book of the creatures 3. By the book of the Scriptures 4. By the book of conscience 3. In these it is but hieroglyphically enigrnatically obscurely darkly 4. Yet so that the soule of a true Christian by the eye of unblemished faith may be sure that shee seeth him in them 5. That being thus assured that shee doth see him shee may rejoice and desire a greater union and communion with him I shall not need to insist long to prove whether there be a God or no I hope there is none so Atheisticall as to deny it at least-wise with their tongue although I feare there are some as bad in Ephes 2. 12. their heart such as are without God in the world Now of Atheists there are three sorts First Atheists Psal 14. 1. 53. 1. in thought The fool hath said in his heart there is no God that is as else-where the Kingly Psal 10. 11. Prophet explaineth it Hee hath said in his heart God hath forgotten God will not require it Secondly Ver. 13. Atheists in words who speak of God as of no God How doth God knew Is there knowledge in the Psal 73. 11. Job 21. 14 15. most High Thus the seventy ancients of the house of Israel did horrible things every man in the chambers of his imagery and said The Lord seeth us not Ezek. 8. 12. Thirdly Atheists in conversation these are they that so live as if there were no God They professe Tit. 1. 16. that they know God but in their works deny him Certes did these truely know that there is a God and that hee seeth all their abominations and will at the last day call them to a strict account and severely punish them it would make them tremble even in this life but they are altogether corrupt Supra abominable and to every good work reprobate To omit School-distinctions Utrum Deum esse Aquin. 1. qu. 2. art 2. sit demonstrabile these arguments following shall sufficiently prove 1. That excellent order of nature seen both in that Microcosme or little world Man as also in that Megacosme the greater world or whole Universe in the disposition of parts and succession of motions and actions which could not be nor subsist were there not an Omnipotency to rule and order it which Omnipotency must needs be Psal 8. 19. 104. 135. 136. 147. 148. God as appeareth by the places quoted in the margent 2. That excellencie of humane understanding Man alone being above all other creatures rationall Reason Knowledge Wisdome c. being that image of God in man and in this sense Saint Paul hath it when he saith We are his off-spring Acts 17. 28. 3. The nature of man acknowledgeth a Deity for no Nation under heaven is so barbarous but worshippeth a supreme power either * 2 Kin. 17. 16. creatures or else the workmanship of their own hands 4. The sting or worm of Conscience even in the most reprobate either in the very act of sin or at least after sin committed proves a Deity and that

of God but those books which are received for and commonly called Canonicall contained in the Old and New Testaments commended unto us from the Prophets and Apostles times even untill now through the power providence and mercy of God which also are not of any private 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. interpretation For prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost and therefore are not to be wrested to please the strange humours and opinions or to make for the private ends of either Papists Hereticks or Schismaticks much lesse to be corrupted in the text by any but construed according to the true sense and meaning of the holy Ghost Perverters there were of the word of God in the Apostles dayes the Apostle Peter speaks of some who wrested the writings of his beloved brother 2 Pet. 3. 16. Paul and other Scriptures also unto their own destruction I could wish there were not some such in these our dayes but because there are some such I shall advertise you in the words of the same Apostle Beware seeing that yee know these things before lest Vers 17. ye also be led away with the errour of the wicked and fall from your own stedfastnesse Quest But some may say How then shall I know that Scripture which is commended unto us to be the very true word of God Answ The holy Scripture takes not its authority from the penmen who wrote the same for they for the most part were unlearned men as shepherds plow-men fisher-men and the like But the authority of the Scriptures ariseth First From the majesty of him who inspired the writers to pen things so sublime in such a familiar stile and simplicity of words and yet such is the majestie of the stile that it is unutterable being more powerfull in matter then in words which none could doe save only that God who is cloathed with Majesty Secondly The matter it selfe being of that efficacy that it divideth assunder the soule and the spirit Heb. 4. 12. and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions as it strikes terrour into the hearts of the greatest adversaries that despight it so it works an aversion from evill and a conversion to good in them that love it yea the comfort that some have taken in it hath made them abandon all sublunary things and yeeld their lives as a prey into the hands of mercilesse men rather then disclaime it so that what by convincing and converting what by affrighting and delighting all have been forced to acknowledge it to be not the invention of mortall man but the true word of immortall God Thirdly The events of the prophecies as of the promised seed the calling of the Gentiles the deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptian thraldome c. How doth Isaiah prophesie of Christ to come as if hee then were already in the flesh Unto us a childe is born c and the same Isa 9. 6. Prophet fore-telleth the freedome of the Jewes from captivity by Cyrus naming him whereas Isa 45. 1. Cyrus was born about 100. yeers after so another Prophet that cried against the altar at Bethel 1 King 13. 2. named Josiah and what hee should doe upon that altar whereas Josiah was born above 300 yeers after In the New Testament S. Paul telleth us of seducing spirits of doctrines of divels forbidding to 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanks-giving and this is fulfilled in that Antichristian Romish Church so Peter fore-telleth of scoffers walking 2 Pet. 3. 3. after their owne lusts and have not wee some who scoffe at Religion and hate the work of Reformation I wish we had not Thus the events of the Prophecies prove the truth of the word to be the word of Truth Fourthly The admirable consent of the pen-men all pointing at the same Messiah though living in severall ages Adde to this the consent of the Spirit mentioned by Paul and saith Peter in 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. the behalf of himself and the rest of the Apostles Wee have a more sure word of prophecie 2 Pet. 1. 19. Fifthly The wisdome of God in the penning of his Law No law of man could ever be so exactly devised but some offender might finde a shift to evade the penaltie of that law mans law therefore requires to be reviewed and amended but this law of God remaines as at first it was made and no delinquent can finde the least way to escape the judgement threatned and this also proves it to be the very word of the invisible God And if any desire to be satisfied yet farther concerning the Scriptures whether they are the very word of God let him doe this compare Scripture by Scripture and place by place let the letter and the sense goe together then let him yeeld himselfe obedient to the Spirit of truth and that Spirit of truth shall witnesse unto him the truth of the Spirit and let as many as be perfect be thus Phil. 3. 15. minded and if in any thing yee be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you But if any one will not be content to suck the wholesome milk from the breasts of the Scriptures let him continue still like the swine to feed upon the husks that he so much doth relish But as for you my brethren of whom I hope Hebr. 6. 9. better things and such as accompany salvation Receive I humbly beseech you with meeknesse sobrietie James 1. 21. and thankfulnesse this pure word of God which is the truth of God proceeding from the fountaine of Truth it selfe which is onely able to make you wise unto salvation and which will open the eyes of your understanding cleerly to see God and as for others no marvell if they never attaine unto the true and perfect knowledge of God who either know not the Scriptures at all or else knowing them search them not diligently nor reade them with a single eye Christ reproved the Sadduces concerning the resurrection You erre saith hee not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God He reproved also the Jews for their ignorance of knowing him when he proved by the testimony of his Father of John of his works and John 5. 17 32 36. of the Scriptures who hee was and therefore hee counselleth them to search the Scriptures for they Vers 39. testified of him Scrutamini Scripturas It was the honour of the Bereans in that they received the word Acts 17. 11. with all readinesse of minde and searched the Scriptures daily whether the things spoken by Paul were so or not and as it was their honour so it will be your blessednesse to be studious in the Scriptures which so evidently reveal God to you For meditation in the word of God is that key that openeth the door to