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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	father_n	son_n	trinity_n	4,352	5	10.1851	5	false

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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

his unrighteous soule how Iulian in his very entrance into the Empire strooke through with an arrow gave up his impure spirit how if we may beleeve Suidas enraged dogs tore Lucian in pieces Neither is that an Argument of little consequence to confirme the authority of the Scripture which Iosephus writeth in the twelfth Booke of his Iewish Antiquities Chap 2. where Demetrius Phaleraeus the Keeper of the Kings Library speakes thus to Ptolomaeus Philadelphus out of Hecataeus Abderita concerning the sacred Bookes of the Iewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being pure and holy it was unlawfull that they should be exprest by a prophane mouth the same Demetrius Phaleraeus relates out of Aristaeus that Theopompus having wrought into his story some part taken from the sacred Word was for fourty dayes together strucken with an Apoplexy untill by some respits of releasement from his sickenesse he appeased God by his prayers and desisted from his enterprise being admonished in a dreame that these things happened to him because he intruded into holy things In the same manner Theodoctes the Poet having inserted into a Tragedie of his something taken from the Word of God being strucke with blindnesse was inforced to abandon the enterprise which so rashly he beganne Agreeable to this is that which Clemens speaketh in his first Booke of Tapist and Tertullian in his Booke of Womens habites that Ierusalem being taken and razed by the Babylonians all the Bookes of the Iewes were restored againe by Esdras their intention is not that the holy Bookes were utterly extinguisht and abollished and then againe restored by Esdras for so the holy Bookes which at this day we reade should not be the Bookes of Moses of David or of Esay but of Esdras who by new inspirations did compile them the intention of Clement and Tertullian is that the Bookes of the Old Testament during the Captivity of Babylon dispersed or but rarely and negligently transcribed were digested by Esdras into order more accurately written and restored to their native beauty And since that time these bookes with so much Religion were observed by the Iewes whom it pleased God to make the Library of the Christians that if the booke had at any time fallen to the ground they would enjoyne themselues a solemne and extraordinary fast and at the end of every booke they did use to write not onely the number of the verses but the number of the letters also in which scrupulous sedulity of theirs the true honour due unto the Scripture doth not consist but hee doth reverence it as hee ought who reads it with such eyes as the constant wife doth the contract of her marriage or the good Sonne doth his fathers Will who never heares the Scripture mentioned but his heart doth leape and his filiall affections earne who by this rule doth compose and squares all his life his deeds and words nay and his thoughts also But as young Samuel being awaked from sleepe by the voice of God lay presently downe to sleepe againe thinking it to be but the voyce of Man and not of God so the greatest part of men the word of God being heard and they awakened by it in a light feare they beginne a little to stirre stretch themselues but by and by they fall againe into a sleepe of vices because they heard this word as the word of man and not as the word of God What is contained in these bookes it would bee too tedious to describe it shall be sufficient to propose unto the eye the elements of Christian Religion that wee may see in what things the true knowledge of God consisteth The Scripture therefore teacheth that Man was first created to the Image of God endued with Holinesse and Righteousnesse and revolted from God by his owne consent and by the suggestion of the Devill whereupon came sin into the world and by sinne Death and Malediction notwithstanding the Image of God in Man is not so disfigured that there remaine not certaine traces of it to wit a certaine perceiving of Divinity and some graines of honesty and civill justice which notions that God might helpe and that no man might excuse his sinne by pretending ignorance God hath given his Law written by man which Law is reduced to these two heads To loue God with all our heart and with all our strength and to loue our neighbour as our selues which Law with great terrour hee pronounced in a voice whose accents were thunders and shining with flames of Lightning that the people might understand that their Lawgiver was armed and who so despised his commandements should not escape unpunished this dreadfull clause adjoyned to it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are contayned in the booke of the Law to doe them When therefore Man by nature prone unto sinne cannot fulfill these Commandements this Law were nothing else then the torment of the conscience and the ministery of Death had not God according to his mercy releeved Man in this forlorne estate Hee therefore in his appoynted time prescribed by the Prophets sent his Sonne the everlasting Word the wisedome of his Father whom hee begat from all eternity who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God into the world and endued him with humane flesh so the Word was made flesh and God in vnity of person assumed humane Nature without any diminution of the Divinity or mixture of the Natures for it was requisite that the Mediator betwixt God and Man should bee God and Man and touch both extreames by the Communion of Nature In this Nature of Man this Sonne of God our Redeemer finished the worke of our Redemption perfectly fulfilling the Law by expiating our sins by his Death and triumphing over Death by his Resurrection hee is the Author of eternall life to all those that beleeue in him Wherefore as the Sinne of Adam is imputed to all his posterity so the Righteousnesse of Christ is imputed unto all those who by the Spirit of Adoption and faith in him are made the Sonnes of God By this marke Christian Religion is discerned and distinguished from all Religions which humane reason hath invented that it shewes the way by which onely we haue accesse to God by his Sonne who is the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to life And though God inhabites light which none can come unto yet after some manner hee hath made himselfe visible in his Sonne who is the Image of God invisible and God with us whosoever shall endeavour to come to God by any other way hee shall find him a Iudge and not a Father and the more he hasts the more hee erres and headlong fals into a certaine ruine To the finishing of this worke of our Redemption the person of the Sonne was chosen rather than the person of the Father or the Holy Ghost for if the Father had beene made Man and assumed our Fesh there had beene in

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

the Trinity two Sonnes one by eternall Generation and another by Generation in Time Neither was there any thing more agreeable than that hee who was the Middle in the persons of the Trinity should also be the Middle betwixt God and Man and bee the linke and tye of all affinity betwixt heaven and earth And what could bee more apt and sutable to the Wisedome of God than that we should be restored into the Right and Degree of sonnes by him who is the onely Sonne of God and that God should renew Man by the same Word by which he created him and that God should speake unto us by him who is the Eternall Word of God and by him should teach us true wisedome who is himselfe the wisedome of the Father This is that Doctrine which is called the Gospell which God hath left as a pledge in his Church that by this prerogatiue it should bee distinguished from the rest of mankind which doctrine he hath commanded to bee published throughout all the world by his Apostles and their Successors prescribing that those who joyne themselues to the Church should bee baptized In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost and that the people should bee instructed in the faith of Christ by the preaching of the Gospell by which to the Penitent and Beleeving Remission of sinnes and everlasting life is promised and that the faithfull should attend the second comming of Christ in which hee shall raise up the dead and taking into his knowledge an Account of all Mans actions shall render unto every one according to his workes By the Church I understand not onely the Church under the new Testament which is called the Christian Church but also the whole Church in all Ages whose beginning is deduced from Adam and which shall last unto the End of the World for the Scripture testifieth that the Fathers before Christ were saved by faith in Christ Abraham rejoyced to see my day and hee saw it Iohn 8. And Moses preferred the reproach of Christ to the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11. And it pleased the Father to reconcile all things by the blood of the Crosse whether they were things in Heaven or things in Earth Col. 1. And there is no man of sober understanding that ever yet made doubt but that these words of Things in heaven did comprehend the Patriarchs and the Prophets to which purpose some of the Ancients haue not unaptly applyed an Allegory of a Branch laden with Grapes which hanging on a staffe was carried on two mens shoulders by him that went formost they understood the Church of the old Testament by him that came after the Church of the new Testament and by the branch of Grapes Christ himselfe for the old Church saw not the comming of Christ because it went before in order of Time but this latter hath Christ ever before her eyes and beholds him come Neverthelesse the Branch of Grapes is as much the food of one as of the other for Christ equally unto both Churches conveigheth life and foode spirituall These are those instructions in which the true and saving knowledge of God consisteth a knowledge which farre transcends all other Arts and Sciences The Sciences are all either contemplatiue or practicke the excellence of the Contemplatiue consists in these three things the Dignity of the Subject the Certainty of the Demonstrations and the Perspicuity of the Instructions the excellence of the Practicke consists in these the Excellence of the End the Aptnesse of the Meanes and the Rules to attaine that End In Divinity that part is contemplatiue which treateth of the nature of God and of the workes of Creation Gubernation and Redemption but that part which treateth of the offices of Piety towards God and Charity towards our Neighbour is practicall for although in this there bee great need of Contemplation yet all this Contemplation is directed to the Practicke in one as in the other Divinity doth infinitely excell all Sciences The Subject of the Part contemplatiue is God himselfe betwixt whom and the body of Man or twixt Lands and Chattles the Subiects of Law and Phisicke there is no comparison but in certainty it wonderfully transcends them all For whatsoever the Philosophers doe dispute concerning the chiefe or principall good are so different among themselues so contrary one unto another that their chiefe good seemes rather to bee grounded on opinion then on nature Augustine in the nineteenth booke of the Citty of God reckons up out of Marcus Varro a hundred and fourescore disagreeing opinions of Philosophers concerning their Summum Bonum or Chiefest Good and Physicians doe rather suspect then see the inward affections of the bodies and the causes of diseases and hereupon it often comes to passe that in pretence of curing the diseased officiously they kill them But how great the uncertainty of humane Law is the infinite diversity of customes and countries the endlesse discord of municipal Rights and of the Roman and Barbarian Lawes doth plainely testifie but the foundations of Divinity stand sure and unshaken being laid by the hand of God himselfe and are more firme then Heaven or Earth The Heaven and Earth shall passe away but my words shall not passe saith God himselfe Neither doth it any thing derogate from this certainety that Men in the busines of Religion are divided into so many Sects and dispute with such contentious heate concerning the interpretation of the Scripture for this doth not arise from the uncertainety of Gods Word but from the pravity of Man who wilfully doth blind his owne eyes and takes delight to stumble in so faire a way subjecting Religion to his belly and by depravation of the most certaine things with full Sailes doth fly to Avarice or Ambition For whosoever will not destine himselfe to a peculiar and set opinion shall find in the Holy Scripture many cleare and evident sentences wanting no Interpreter which abundantly wil suffice him both for faith maners I confesse in the Scriptures there are many things full of obscurity but if the pious student shall weigh them well hee shall find them either prophecies or figures and not foundations of faith or of the nature of those things which are necessary to Salvation for God by plaine and easie things doth instruct us to Salvation and by obscure ones doth exercise us in prayer or workes in us sobriety or pulling the wings of our curiositie doth retaine us in the bounds of modesty And this must bee a received Maxim that the least knowledge derived from the word of God is more excellent then the exactest knowledge of earthly things For a little of the knowledge of God faithfully received doth abundantly suffice to inflame our minds with the loue of God and to leade our liues both well and happily The End Remaines by which Divinity whatsoever there is of Arts or Sciences by a transcendent Distance doth excell For the Politicks onely ininforme a