Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	comprehend_v	light_n	shine_v	2,130	5	9.2464	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41434	The two great mysteries of Christian religion the ineffable Trinity, [the] vvonderful incarnation, explicated to the satisfaction of mans own naturall reason, and according to the grounds of philosophy / by G. G. G.	Goodman, Godfrey, 1583-1656.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1103; ESTC R4826	120,015	119

a higher beginning In aeterno principio aeternitatis in the eternall beginning of eternity you must give me leave is sometimes I speak in unusuall termes when neither the words nor apprehension of man can otherwise serve to express or conceive the mysterie And to what can the regeneration or new birth of man be better resembled or compared then to the creation See then how they agree and concur together After the creation of the heaven and the earth and the confused masse of the waters the first thing created for ornament and beauty was light Gen 1. 3 Light is but an accident and must presuppose a substance and though it be light yet in respect of the substance it is in effect but a shadow Saint John therefore doth better express this light together with the fountain of this light in the fourth verse of this Chapter speaking of the Word In him was life and the life was the light of men and as in the creation before this light was created the state of the world is described by Moses Gen. 1. 2. And darkness was upon the face of the deep which is most truly explicated by Saint John in the 5th verse of this Chapter The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not this darkness betokeneth the state of sin the death of sin as Adam soon after his creation committed sin whereupon followed the sentence of death And out of this death of sin it was the great mercy of God that man should be awakened and that by degrees first with the sound and noyse of the law which came with Thunder and Lightning to strike terror into man as the bellowing of beasts designed for slaughter and sacrifice might shew them their own condition for death is the wages of sin and thus far Moses proceeds Man being now rowsed a little awakened with this great sound of the Law trembling and fearing he listens and finds that this sound becomes a voice Vox hominē sonat the voice betokens a man and here after the great terror and threatnings of the law he begins to conceive hope that he may find bowels of compassion and then expects mercy and pity This was the office of Saint John Baptist whose time was an interregnum between the Law and the Gospel and who was Vox clamantis in deserto the voyce of a cryer in the wilderness described by S. John in the 6th verse of this Chapter Hitherto we have heard the sound of the law and the voice of a Cryer but all this will not suffice to discover the secrets and mysteries of God we must then listen and we shall find that this voyce doth tend and end in a word and that this word may be fitted to mans capacity it is necessary that this word be made flesh Verbum caro and in him should dwell all the treasures of Gods wisdom And as this word was of an extraordinary condition so it is necessary that there should be tongues of an extraordinary nature and form fit to express this word Linguas attulit qui pro verbo venit and this was the holy Ghost who came down in the form of fiery cloven tongues to testifie of this word and here you have the full hight and perfection of the state of grace and this is the scope and the object of Saint John which is implyed in his name for it signifies the grace of God So that Moses comes as far short of Saint John as time doth of eternity and in other respects especially for the object Saint John as far exceeds Moses as the fruit doth the blossom or the substance the type or the body the shadow Moses by a propheticall spirit and speciall illumination describes the creation of the world and the making of man and so descends downwards and writes only the History of his own time but our Apostle transcends and as he begins with the eternity of Christ so in the Revelations he prophesies of the Church even to the worlds ends and after the dissolution of this world then to remain glorious for all eternity And as they had several ends so they proceeded severall ways Moses according to the office of a Law-giver sets down many judgements of God upon the committing of the first sin as the sentence of death the expulsion out of Paradise the murder of Abel the vengeance upon Cain the deluge the confusion of tongues the burning of Sodom the captivity of Egypt besides the heavy yoak of Gods own law that they should begin with circumcision the shedding of bloud that they should be so many in number commanded with such strict observances with such severe punishment and notwithstanding all this yet could he not so much prevaile as to bring the Israelites into the land of promise But our Apostle Saint John according to the nature of an Evangelist in every page brings many tokens signes and assurances of Gods mercy and goodness they are so many that I will not reckon them and as upon the creation man committed sinne so in our regeneration he that knew no sin became a sacrifice for sin Mans nakednesse did then appear but now he is clothed with Christs righteousness Paradise was then lost but now he recovers a better inheritance and that it might appear how in every point and parcell a full restitution should be made as in Paradise there was the tree of life and pleasant fountains and waters so the like are described in the heavenly Jerusalem as Paradise was kept shut by an Angell with a fiery sword so on the contrary the heavenly Jerusalem hath many doores all standing wide open there is free entrance none are excluded as you may read in the latter end of the Apocalypse besides those frequent and daily works of mercy practised by Christ whose custome was deambulare benefaciendo he had no other imployment but onely to doe works of mercy curing all manner of diseases feeding many thousands raising the dead blessing sanctifying and teaching men in the wayes of salvation and to reckon them up in particular were endless onely I conclude with our Apostle in the last words of his Gospell where he confesseth that the world would not contain the bookes that might be written of Christs Acts. Thus our Apostle doth every way inclose and incompass Moses and so far doth the last Evangelist exceed the first Law-giver both in the object whereof they treat for the world was created of nothing but the word was begotten in the understanding of God not six thousand years are yet past since the world was created but the word was begotten from all eternity so Moses ends with his own time but our Apostle proceeds to the eternity of the Church by comparing the first pen-man of Scripture with the last it is memorable to consider the difference between the beginning of Scripture and the end of Scripture between Genesis and the Apocalipse for it

curb to bridle and order this liberty of will as he shall see cause and Gods prescience imposeth no necessity upon the action for as the Omnipotency of God creates all things out of nothing so the Omnisciency of God may foresee and foreknow all things out of nothing Gods power and Gods knowledge are of like extent and efficacy and when no cause is determinated and ordered yet God who seeth all things which are not as if they were so he may foresee things which shall be though the causes be free and not determinated for he sees things not onely in their causes but in the infinite light of his own Intellectuals so that in respect of the causes whereof alone we are to judge the effects may be free voluntary though in respect of Gods prescience whereof we are not to judge they may be necessary and infallibly succeed This I will illustrate by an example He that stands on a high Mountain and on either side sees passengers riding in the same rode-way some forward some backward some towards each other the passengers ride of themselves and it lies in their power to go or not to go but he that stands on the hill may know where and when they shall meet and yet notwithstanding his foreknowledge they meet very casually and voluntary and thus may Gods prescience stand with the freedom and liberty of mans actions Hitherto I have made a high flight and now me thinks I am like a man that is weary in holding up his head to look upon the Sun and the heavens and finding that his spirits are a little wasted with too much light he retires home and coming to his inner rooms he findes them so dark that he can see nothing yet rests himself there for a time to recover his strength whereby he might be the better enabled again to discern the Sun and the heavens So give me leave in stead of making further search into the Attributes of God wherein I finde my eyes dazled now to turn mine eyes inward and to make a diligent search what knowledge man hath of his own in such things as meerly concern himself and how far his natural knowledge may transport him in the knowledge of God and Religion and how far we may presume upon our natural light to discern a supernatural object and things of another world of a higher condition Our own reason informs us that there is nothing in man that hath not bounds of Circumscription Thus in our stature Datur maximum minimum we cannot adde to our own growth thus in our senses Excellens sensibile ●…orrumpit sensum we cannot fasten our eyes on the Sun thus in the strength of our limbs we finde in our selves a definite and determinate power that we cannot work beyond our ability so is there a measure and stint of knowledge that we cannot conceive beyond our limited capacity This will better appear if we consider the several degrees of understanding in man himself how one man doth far exceed another in wit capacity and apprehension Thus we finde that all wits are not fit for all studies and all Sciences he must have the light of great natural Intellectuals who is fit to wade through the midnight of the Metaphysicks or to spy out the curious subtilties of School-learning he must have engines in his brain who is fit for Mathematical studies or Architecture he must have a quick and nimble fancy who aims to excel in Poetry or Rhetorick he must have an exact memory to compute the Concordancy of Times to be a perfect Historian So then it pleaseth God so to order the states of men and the several gifts of nature that some should become Teachers others prove Scholars and Proficients as God shall give a blessing and prosper their endevours And while they are learning necessary it is that they should believe their Teachers And is there such a difference of men between themselves comparing one with another then much more is there a far greater difference between God and man Suppose I should compare God with man in other Attributes and see the infinite difference what is the strength of man but weakness in respect of Gods Omnipotency what is the length of mans age but less then a minute in respect of Gods eternity what is the wealth of man but beggery in respect of Gods treasures Then what is the wit and understanding of man but meer foolishness in respect of Gods wisdome But that we may lay a deeper foundation lest natural reason might presume too far she must first be taught to humble her self I would then first ask what is the object of natural reason surely I will extend the object as far as possibly I can I will give her the uttermost due and therefore I do acknowledge the object of natural reason to be the natural world for upon the same grounds and principles whereof the world doth subsist Reason doth likewise guide her self by way of direction but man sees the bounds of the natural world the material heavens which incompass and hedge in the world as a Circumference to the Centre or Circle Then surely he must see the bounds of his natural Reason beyond which he cannot extend his natural knowledge which is very fitly set forth by the form and fashion of mans head or scull which is somewhat circular and not unlike the Globe of the world all his brains are within the scull and what is without is no part of man So what is within the cavity of the Globe of the world may be partly involved and laid up in mans brain as it were written in Characters but what is without the convexity of this Globe it cannot enter into mans brain Thus every faculty hath his object and this must be adaequatum every way answerable and proportionable to the faculty and what exceeds this object comes not within the sphere of that faculty as the eye cannot hear the ear cannot smell the hand cannot taste for every faculty hath as her own proper organs and instruments so her own proper bounds And lest Reason should be presumptuous and being onely natural should rashly adventure to leap into the supernatural world or out of infidelity should utterly deny what is above her reach and apprehension I must lay open her weakness and see how far she is wounded even in her own naturals that she may be well asham'd of her self if being so ignorant at home and in things which concern her yet she must presume to comprehend mysteries of another world which so far exceed her reach and apprehension See then our defects in natural knowledge not onely in the motion of the heavens the insensible Influences the miraculous Meteors but come we to the meanest Creatures and to speak of them in general The Philosophers will tell you that the forms of things are utterly unknown whence the Logicians conclude That we cannot