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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	evil_a	good_a	tree_n	33,809	5	11.7409	5	true

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

which two knowledges doe answer the two trees which God first planted in Paradise whereof one gaue the knowledge of Good and Euill which is the office of the Law the other doth beare the fruit of Life which is the benefit of the Gospell For wee haue three wayes of knowing God one by the workes of God the second by the Law the third by the Gospell among which the knowledge by the Gospell is farre most excellent for the other two knowledges present God to our vnderstandings as a Creator a Lord and as the Master of our life but this as a father and Redeemer The two former knowledges of God doe teach what God is in himselfe but this latter what God will bee towards vs the former doe strike feare and wonder into vs the latter advanceth Hope and createth Love so that without the knowledge of God by the Gospell the knowledge of him by his workes is but a lazy speculation and the presse of him by the law is terrible and doth presse our Consciences with a burden vnsupportable It seemed not enough therefore to God to teach us by his creatures who in throngs as it were and by admirable consent giue testimony of him but hee hath unlocked his sacred mouth that by his word hee might endue us with the knowledge of himselfe and by that knowledge inflame our loues For by the Architecture of the world the Power and the Wisedome of God is acknowledged but not his Iustice nor his Mercy without the knowledge of which there is no salvation also the works of God doe witnesse the greatnesse of the Workeman but they lay not open unto us his will nor deliver in what manner he is to bee worshipped Besides when the contemplation of the creatures doth represent God unto us as hee is armed with thunders and shaking heaven and earth but with the turning of his eye this contemplation doth affect us with astonishment with the feare and horrour of an Armed Iudge were there not another doctrine which doth appease our consciences and giue unto us assurances of the loue of God for then doe wee with filiall eyes behold heaven as the portall of our fathers Palace when God in his word hath given to us the evident testimonies of his paternall loue Moreover wee should grow darke in the very contemplation of the workes of God did we not distinctly see them by the word as through spectacles which of themselues would hardly be discerned this doth the Apostle teach us in the 11. Heb. Through faith wee understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seene were not made of things which doe appeare giving us to understand that they onely beleeue as they ought the creation of the world to be without any praeexistent matter which receiue the word of God with the obedience of faith would you haue it made legible by examples The history of the Creation is well knowen as it is related by Moses in the beginning of Genesis It is there declared that the Sunne was created but in the fourth day so that three dayes and as many nights were past when the Sunne was first created this being to informe us that God did so use the Sunne to illustrate the world that yet without it and before it hee shined into the world by his owne light being no wayes obliged to second causes And when Moses assigneth a beginning and ending to every day in these words And the Evening and the Morning were the first day and so of the other dayes onely in the seventh day Moses maketh no mention of the Evening for the Rest of the seventh day is the shadow and the figure of the heavenly and eternall Rest of which there is no End so when the Naturalists report many things of the Rainebow the onely end and signification of the Rainebow can be learned out of the word of God But how many mysteries and instructions doth the Creation of Man and Woman containe Surely God forming the body of Man out of clay did conforme his mind also to humility and a religious lowlinesse by remembring him of his discent and ignoble parentage also when God created a Wife for the man when he was asleepe it doth instruct us that a good Wife is not obtayned by a mans owne industry or wisedome but by the Providence of God which doth bring her to him while hee is asleepe Againe the creation of the Woman from the part most neere unto the heart what doth it imply but faith and loue and that I may not diue into hidden mysteries and by what meanes Adam overcome with a deepe sleepe which is called by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brother of Death was a figure of Christ in the sleepe of Death which sleepe God made use of to raise unto him his Spouse which is the Church And truely a Spirit that is exercised in the word of God will receiue much fruite and pleasure from the contemplation of the creatures For besides that hee beholds the fields the woods and whatsoever else is pleasant on earth as the possessions of his father and doth walke in them as in his owne inheritance and gathers those fruits which hee knowes by right are his as being created for the use of the Sonnes of God there is this addition more that hee cannot bestow his eyes on any place wherein a resemblance of vertue shall not encounter them and refresh his memory with something which hee hath heard or read in the word of God If a godly man and one that knowes God by his word beholds a fountaine of running waters they wil presently prompt his memory to the fountaine of life in Iohn 4. And to the waters springing up to everlasting life If he beholds the Sunne he contemplates how greater farre is the Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse If he considers the vicissitude of the dayes and nights he comforts himselfe in the remembrance of the assurance of the Covenant of God God himselfe so speaking by the mouth of Ieremy If you can breake my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night that there should not be Day and Night in their season then shall you also be able to breake my Covenant with David If he beholds a Shepheard driving of his flocke hee remembers presently that in the Psalme The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want Finally wheresoever hee turnes his eye hee will find an ample subject of prayse and of thankesgiving and a wide field will be opened for holy meditation That which we speake of the workes of Creation is to be vnderstood also of the workes of Gubernation and of the divine Providence the effects of which man is not able to discerne unlesse he annoynt his eyes with the salve of Gods word and wipe the filmes from off them There are not wanting examples among the Heathens who being opprest by calamities have acknowledged God the revenger of their

offences or freed from evills have ascribed to him the praise of their deliverance Most remarkable is that of Sethon King of Aegypt who holding a Mouse in his hand stood cut in stone in the Temple of Vulcan on his Statue was inscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever lookes on mee Let him godly learne to be Giving thankes to God who by multitudes of Mice sent in among them had disbanded the army of Sennacherib the King of the Assyrians And Phlegas in the sixt of the Aeneids among a thousand torments in hell is personated crying out Discite justitiam moniti non temnere Divos By me learne Iustice and be wise Nor doe the holy Gods despise From hence they feigne Nemesis and Rhamnusia hanging over the successes of the wicked and stopping the courses of their prosperity from hence in their Tragedies if any horrible crime worthy a God to revenge it was presented some God was then produced advancing his head from behind a frame or property but these things were rare and as it were forced by necessity and but light compared to these which out of the Word of God wee learne concerning his providence as of the haires of our head which are all numbred of the Sparrowes not one of which falls on the ground without the will of God of the wicked rejoycing in their follies while the hand of God hollowes their pitte the deeper of God searching our reynes and seeing the secrets of our hearts of giving an account before the Tribunall Seat of God not onely of evill actions but of an idle word And as the people in the street looking on the Dyall or the Clock know by the hand what houre of the day it is but are altogether ignorant of the hidden motions and of the worke within that moves it selfe but he that goes into the place where the Clocke is doth with admiration behold the wheeles and poyses of it and proceeding from the wheele which moveth first to that which is moved last he observeth how the motions are involv'd and depend on one another So the Vulgar seeth the events of things as they expose themselves to the eye and observation of all but hee who is admitted into the Sanctuary of the Word of God doth wonder at the linked order of the divine Counsells and poyseth with himselfe the weights of providence So David Psal 73 confesseth that at the beginning he envyed the successe of ungodly men and was not a little afflicted to see them flow with blessings not onely according to their desires but also above them while the righteous and they who are called the people of God in full boles drinke deep of waters mingled with gall which affliction of his mind was eased after hee was entred into the Sanctuary of God from whence as from a Watch-Tower he beheld the end of the Vngodly and acknowledged that the happinesse of men was not to be adjudged by the present condition of their state but by the counsell of God and the last event of things the holy man owed this his rectifyed judgement of humane affaires to the Word of God from which in many places hee confesseth that hee had derived the wisedome of his knowledge Adde to this that if we had no other Master but the Creatures onely to instruct us in the service of God every man would frame a Religion to himselfe according to his owne pleasure and as every Creature was most profitable to the life of man accordingly divine honours should be ascribed to him from hence it is that the Persians worshipped the Sunne because they saw nothing more faire they found nothing of a more quickning vertue then the Sunne from hence it is that the Aegyptians worshipped an Oxe of which creature there is a speciall use in manuring of the Earth from hence it is they worshipped also the Bird Ibis who with his horned beake did destroy the Snakes and purged Aegypt from her Serpents whereupon as every man became more renowned either by valour or by the praise of civill pollicy or by the invention and study of the Arts hee was more easily exalted by posterity into heaven and numbred in the Catalogue of the Gods But did not the light of the Word of God shine downe from heaven it cannot be related what prodigies of Religion what vaine observations men would fancie with what painted fables would they delude themselves and God attributing those things unto God which would misbecome a man but indifferently sober This was the vanity that first brought Atheisme into the World for a man civilly wise that beholds Cities and Nations to be distracted by contrary opinions and all things to be full of fables suffers himselfe easily to be traduc'd to a beliefe that Religion is but a meere invention to which opinion Plutarch seemes to be more inclined for in his booke expressely written on the same subject he endeavours to prove that Atheisme is more tolerable then Superstition and Cicero in his second Booke De Natura Deorum doth affirme that they are called superstitious who whole dayes doe offer prayers and Sacrifice that their children may survive them and they are said to be religious who sequester and with carefull reverence touch those things which appertaine to the service of the Gods But good man he was altogether ignorant that this which he calls Religion is nothing else but Superstition Neither is it to bee wondred at that they were inclouded in so thicke a darknesse on whom the light of Gods word not shone for as the Nations which understand not the courses of the starres or of the Sunne confound the order of the Moneths and yeares So the Nations to whom the Word of God was not revealed did infinitely intangle themselves in many errourts concerning Religion for they who worship not God according to the rule prescribed in his Word are without God in the world As the Apostle hath it in the Second of the Ephes Although they worship millions of Gods nay although the Samaritans came neere and next in conformity to the true Religion acknowledging that they worshipped one onely God the Creator of the Vniverse the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and were signed with the signe of the Covenant acknowledged Moses too their Law-giver yet because they revolted from the rule of the Word of God and by a stubborne separation did divide themselves from the Israelites our Saviour saith in the Fourth of Iohn that the Samaritans knew not what they worshipped So necessary it is in the businesse of salvation to have God to leade us and to make his Word our Rule But when the light of Gods word hath once shined into a Nation presently all false Religions are blowen away and the inventions of Mans braine vanish and the kingdome of Sathan which preserved it selfe in darkenesse fals downe before the Light then not unelegantly may be rehearsed that of David in the 104. Psalme As soone as darkenesse is spread over the