Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	find_v	holy_a	scripture_n	3,248	5	5.4817	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74704	To pneuma ksopyrén, or Sparkes of the spirit, being, motives to sacred theorems, and divine meditations. / By a reverend father of the Church of England.	Davies, Athanasius, b. 1620 or 21.	1658 (1658)	Thomason E1903_1; ESTC R209994	79,302	390

will of an Almighty power Therefore good Lord we are compell'd to believe and confesse that the holy Bible is thy Book and not the work of any creature First Because those things which are written in many places of the holy Bible are written in such a lofty stile with such an extraordinary phrase and with such supernatural matters as are above the capacity and nature of men wholly yea beyond all humane knowledge understanding or imagination So that it is impossible for men to conceive or imagine such words much lesse to know or to write them of themselves without the direction of an all-wise God For such words as are written in the Bible could never be understood thought upon or so much as once imagined by the wit of man much lesse laid down in writing For what man was able to write conceive or imagine of that inscrutable mystery in the Sacred Trinity namely that there be three Persons in one God-head really distinguished into Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet these three to be coequal in dignity consubstantiall in nature coeternall in being yea all three Persons to be one and the same simple and indivisible God without body parts or passion Secondly Who could imagine that power to be three distinct persons which is the same in substance in essence in number in power and Deity surely flesh and blood could never reveal these things to Moses to Daniel to Peter to Paul nor to any other man A man might conceive perhaps as some Philosophers have done That God is One Simple and Indivisible but that this one God should be three distinct persons equal in all things is above mans reach Therefore he that caused this to be revealed and written was no lesse than a God that knoweth all things Thirdly What man of himself durst once say or affirm yea or imagine that God was made man That the Word was made Flesh That the Deity assumed the humanity And the humanity unto the Deity in one person united So that both Deity and humanity are and remain in one and the same person without confusion of natures so that one Christ is both God and man And this mystery done in the Second person in Trinity and not in the First or the Third Could this be the invention of any man's braine Could any deep sighted Philosopher either produce the like example in Nature or invent the same in reason can any carping Atheist of the subtilest sharpest conceive or imagine of himself how this should be therefore the Bible is the wisedom writing of God and not of men For if we should admit that men might know that it was needfull that God should be united unto our man-hood though none of themselves could be so wise yet who was able to say that it shold be so when it should be how in what place and by what means surely no creature neither good nor bad could imagine of himselfe An evill creature especially could neither say nor imagine it of himself because it was a matter tending unto the chiefest good and to the highest exaltation and greatest dignity of mans nature For now our nature in the person of Christ is exalted above all the Angells in heaven and therefore an evill creature could never imagine or think of so good and so great a benefit Neither could any good creature of himself or his own wisedome speak of these things Joh. 1. because no creature was able to know these things of himself Luke 1. If therefore neither a good nor a bad creature could write these of themselves then it must be that the Creator of all wrote them or if at least wise some good men wrote them yet they first received them of God Fourthly To adde more proof to this How could any man be ever able to write or to imagine that a young Virgin should conceive without a man and bring forth a man and yet remain a pure Virgin both before and after What man durst either say or affirm such a thing for a truth it being the contrary to nature and common experience Therefore good Lord as it was thy holy arm that wrought it so was it thy wisedom that revealed it and caused it to be written Fifthly To seal up all What man was able of himself to write of the begining of the world when it was made in how many dayes what were done in every severall day That man was made last For if he was made last of all creatures how could he have written either when himselfe was made or what things were made when he had no being except thou Lord hadst taught and instructed him how what to write Was Adam able of himselfe to know that that was the sixt day wherein he was created except thou Lord hadst taught him Who could affirm that the floods did overflow all the tops of all the Mountains in the world Gen. 7 20. and how many Cubits the waters did prevail above all Mountains seeing Noah and his family were in the Arke Could he measure it wh t height it was by Cubits if thou Lord hadst not instructed him Or who could be so bold so fond so foolish and so voyd of sense and reason as to write That so huge so firm and so faire a building as this world is shall be consumed with fire in a moment and that so suddenly the Elements should be dissolved and melt with heat and that the very same bodies of men that are now consumed to dust and ashes should rise again in the twinckling of an eye could any man know or imagine these things much less write of them but onely the Spirit and power that hath made and created them Seing therefore my Lord and maker the holy Scriptures have such Authority such threatnings such eternall promises such lofty style such extraordinary phrases such supernaturall matters so farre out of all creatures knowledge so strange unto all mens conceits and so far above their imagination Lastly seeing all other Books of the same subject are found to be erroneous the authors thereof disagreeing among themselves so many wayes And seeing the holy Scriptures could never be branded with errours or justly charged with enlargement in any line or leaf thereof though penned and translated with so many sundry instruments so farre asunder who then so blind or so blear-eyed that cannot see or acknowledge the Holy Bible to be thy Word or work alone Sparke 1. O gratious God and most wise Father seeing it is so manifest that the holy Bible is thy Book and of thy onely making a 2 Pet. 1.21 inspire into our hearts good motions that our delight may be in thy Lawes and that we may exercise our selves therein day and night b Psal 1.2 grant we may ever without doubt c Act. 28. ●4 or wavering believe it with all our heart and soul th●t it may be sweeter unto our mouthes than the honey or the honey-comb