Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	angel_n	earth_n	soul_n	5,044	5	4.5764	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51828	Two discourses the first, shewing how the chief criterions of philosophical truth, invented by speculative men, more eminently serve divine revelation, than either philosophy or natural religion. The second, manifesting how all the foundations of the intellectual world, viz. reason, morality, civil government, and religion, have been undermin'd by popish doctrine and policies. By Tho. Mannyngham, M.A fellow of New Colledge in Oxford, and Rector of East-Tysted in Hant-Shire.	Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722.	1681 (1681)	Wing M510; ESTC R216239	26,124	193

a lower Commerce of perception Such immediate displays of Divinity infinitely transcend the Analogy of thy Order and the immoderate Glory of such a Revelation would but absorb thy Soul and crack its Hypostasis Thou canst not see God and live But still the Natural Philosophy in the Scripture can never be pardoned either that or De Cartes must be false However Men may flatter themselves that they have Orbs and Circumvolutions of Souls Concentric to the Universe yet we may very rationally believe that an exact Knowledge of Nature was never designed Man on this side of Heaven it may possibly be reserved for our Illuminated Faculties and be an accessary of our Glorification The Essences of things can be the Object of no other than a Divine Understanding and he that made the World can only have a perfect Knowledge of it What if Divine Providence as a peculiar priviledge granted to Adam and Solomon a considerable acquaintance with Nature yet event hath shewn that there was a kind of Tetragrammaton in it that it was thought a thing too Sacred to be communicated to Posterity so that what they enjoyed was no Natural Acquisition but a Gracious Gift not so much Science as Vision Though Cartesius in his account of Meteors has endeavoured with Epicurus to exclude the Deity from the middle Region and to deliver us up to the Providence of an Atmosphere yet God Almighty thought fit to manifest his Omnipotence to Job from that place rather than from the Heaven of Heavens What is the end we propose of our enquiries into Nature Is it to serve and gratify our Curiosity That we will not own Is it to plume our Pride That we dare not own Then it can be no other than to settle in us a due reverence and acknowledgment of the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God Now all this is Pathetically secured to us in Scripture since it may very effectually be obtain'd by an humble Meditation on the Existences of things their more open Qualities and their obvious Relations The consideration of the substantial parts and uses of sensible Nature the very Mode and Method of the Scripture's Philosophy has we know in a meer Heathens Breast kindled Admiration into an Hymn But I never yet read of any Anthems composed from the Contemplation of Atoms Who can Spell the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness out of the Principles of Des Cartes where he gives us the Origen of all things in a Puppet-play interprets all the works of God according to the bruit Laws of Mechanism and allows no other Operations in Vital Nature then what he finds parallell'd in German Clockwork Whereas who can without holy Affections peruse the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Majesty of Mose's account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he describes the Original Fiat in a Phrase almost commensurate to the Dignity of the Creation that some Rabbins have thought his very Style as well as Sense to have been inspir'd They are our too eager disquisitions after the Internal Verities of things that have led the Witty World into so large a Field of Scepticism Men must be pressing and breaking into the Recesses of Nature as that Conqueror heretofore into the Sanctum Sanctorum then mistake the thing return dissatisfied cry all is Pageantry and that we worship Clouds I had rather read the Astonishments of Job when God poses him through the whole Creation then all the bold explications of Men and Daemons I had rather consider the Rain-bow as the Reflection of God's Mercy then the Sun 's Light and when I call to mind that Thunder throughout the Scriptures is stiled his Mighty Voice I 'm satisfi'd at what I Tremble and though this may debase my Philosophy yet it heightens my Divinty If any man is not yet satisfied what is Truth let him but seriously reflect on his Death-Bed and the Day of Judgement and then I 'm perswaded hee 'l need no Answer When the Gayety of Fancy forsakes him and the Prosperity of Invention gives no relish when his Passions and Appetites grow languid from the impotence of Blood and his Brain becomes too weak for the Image of the World then will he call for a Portion of Scripture to ease his Conscience a drop from the Fountain of Living Water to cool his tongue Then set him on the highest Mountain of Metaphysics and from thence give him the Ravishing Prospect of all the Kingdoms of Humane Learning all the Glorys of Philosophy yet he will not Worship not Idolize one glittering Notion not part with one single Text for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the last Fire shall make Nature confess it self to be no God the Sun and Moon be darkned the Elements and Stars melt with fervent heat and run together into one great Vortex of Confusion and when the whole Volumn of the Creation shall be shrieveled up like a Scroll of Parchment then shall the Holy Bible be opened its everlasting Truths unfolded and though Heaven and Earth pass away yet not one Iota of that shall perish Go now and neglect Heaven the receptacle of Angels and departed Souls for the visible Heaven of Orbs and Planets and lose the Beatific Vision for that through a Tube Go thou that hungerest after Humane Learning go make a vast Progress in specious Errors and industriously acquire to thy self a deep-read Confusion of thought lose all good Sense by a multiplicity of Languages grow gray under a Mathematical Problem and make thy Grave in the Dust of Geometry let the reconciliation of the Chaldean Chronology and the Egyptian Dinasties swallow up thy moments of Salvation let the uncertainties of Prosane Authors attend thee on thy Death-Bed and with their restless Tumult add a Phrensie to thy Feaver then let thy Learned Ashes be kept in Urns and thy great Name be read in Annals Yet for all this know O man that Plato gave thee thy Pompous Thoughts Aristotle thy Sagacity in Invention and Euclid thy Mighty Demonstrations In a word that Heathens gave thee all thy Reason and the Curse of Babel thy Languages to express it Go therefore rather and Captivate all thy Thoughts to the positions of Faith thy whole Heart to the embracement of the Gospel and let the frequent Meditation on Sin Death and Judgment macerate thy bold Naturals into an humble contrition of understanding POPERY One great Cause of ATHEISM OMnis Haeresis cum ad Atheismum delapsa est per sapientem Prophetam quales in Italiâ fuêrunt Thomas Dominicus Scotus alii in Veritatis viam reducitur Tho. Campanelle De Monarchiâ Hispan Cap. 30. The foundations of the Intellectual World are these four 1. Reason 2. Morality 3. Civil Government 4. Religion And that each of these Pillars is remov'd undermin'd or out of course either thro' the sly Machinations or open assaults of our implacable enemies the Papists who either act themselves with declared Malignity or put pernitious Engines into other mens hands a little

evident perceptions so that that which can give the best account of the Goodness of God justly claims the Advantage of this Criterion And that Revelation does so would be almost improper here to mention but that the method of my Discourse requires it I shall instance only in one thing but that the greatest the vast Astonishment of Heaven and Earth viz. that of the Second Persons Incarnation his taking our Humane Nature upon him to Converse with us to Dye for us for Us Sinners A Mystery of Love which gave the very Angels new Anthems a new Scene of Knowledg and consequently a new Heaven Now I would not be thought to speak against all Philosophy to declaim against all Learning any more than he that Preaches against a full Table or exhorts to Mortification would be thought to make Starving Orthodox and Self-murder a Gospel-Precept For since Philosophy is by most men allowed to be the requisie improvement of our natural Faculties since 't is commendably made the great Employ and Study of our younger years and the better Commerce of our more advanc'd Society since exalted and almost meriting Charity hath built us Schools and Colledges for our pleasant Recess and Meditation bequeathed us competent Revenues for the easie maintainance and tranquility of a Thinking Life nobly endow'd our Professors for more speedy advances in Arts and Sciences and since Christian Common-wealths with their prudent Laws and Constitutions have established to us our Universities certainly we ought not to entertain Philosophy with so cold a regard as the Phanaticism of some and the incapacity of others to attain so great an excellency is ready to prophane it with But yet if we take a farther prospect and view it in its ultimate tendencies we may with as equal reason blame its Adoration as its Contempt Philosophy was intended as our Colleges wherein 't is taught not to spend our our whole Age 60 years and 10 in it but to make it our passage to more solid attainments to equippe our selves for more substantial Knowledge 'T is but an Introduction a Ministring Accomplishment for Divinity and we are first taught the Elements of the World that we may better understand the Sacred Character 'T is but a Jewish Canaan Typical and significative of a more Spiritual Mansion and may under a judicious Management serve to shadow out to us though very imperfectly the infinite Treasures of revealed Wisdom So that the intent of my discourse was only to shew that whatever pretences Philosophy or natural Religion could make for Truth or Certainty yet Revelation there being such a thing granted by the Adversary laid fuller and more abundant claim to all those Rules and Measures of Truth But should I now reckon up all the incommunicable characters of Truth to Revelation it would require a Volumn I will only mention some few and those such as lye within the compass of Philosophical Reasonings then answer an Objection or two of the Natural-list and so conclude Whatever Philosophy or Natural Religion can truly arrive to in its best progress of Reasoning its highest exaltation Revelation has all the benefit and evidence of that Light besides a farther and infallible confirmation from Divine Testimony Moreover the excellency of the Object peculiar to the matters of Revelation gains a freer admittance makes a stronger and more lasting impression on the understanding than any other common Motive whatever For no man needs any other Argument than his own Reflection to convince him that Assent ariseth more properly from the excessive worth of the Object than from the dry evidence of Apprehension and Perspicuity it self And that because however in Philosophy Truth and Goodness may seem distinct yet in Divinity they are all one and the most abstracted speculation there has a constant Morality annex'd to it which always superadd's the Recommendation of the Affections too And how magnificently soever men paraphrase on Reason Intelligible Ideas and Eternal Verities they are our Passions that must carry us to Heaven our Repentance and our Devotion our Love our Fear and our Hopes and our Reason and our Faith only as joyn'd with these 'T was the zeal of the Affections assisted by the Holy Spirit that reconcil'd Martyrdoms and rescu'd the Bible from the Dioclesian Flames There each holy Martyr would freely part with his Life but not his Bible That Sacred Depositum was all his Wealth his World his Eternity When his right hand was cut off he seized it with his left when that was gone too he fasten'd on it with his Mouth and amidst his Torments sang Hallelujahs out of it when his breath could no longer articulate his devotions his panting heart still retain'd it and when the Tyrant grasped that it fled away with his Soul Now search all the Records all the Catalogues of Stoicks those great Masters and Professors of Death and see if this can be parallell'd We have read indeed of a Philosopher that offer'd up an Hecatomb for the invention of a Proposition but he would never have Sacrificed himself for the Confirmation of it But the Naturalist tells us we have no sublime Notions of God in Scripture and that the Israelites only knew his Name whereas every Hebrew name of God is a pregnant Hieroglifick in his Theology and that one word Jehova is a Body of Divinity The Scriptures have acquainted us with so much of the Nature of God as may sufficiently inspirit our Obedience and those who have pretended to farther discoveries have only opened a way to Heresie Enthusiasm and even Atheism it self And we have reason to fear that those curious and subtil Discourses of late about the Idea of a God have done but little service to the Christian Religion What the understanding in things of this Nature like a clear Fountain would naturally reflect as it maintains its ordinary Current when once examined and stirred either defaces or distorts and I am apt to think that the Divine Nature and its absolute Attributes are best known by the modest reflection of the first Thought The most abstracting Metaphysitian that studies them farther does but think himself into amazement and with the delaying Philosopher only loses his God by a longer Procrastination But still the same Adversary urges that 't is strangely irrational to represent God Almighty with Passions and Senses which the Scriptures every where allow This is disingenious Sophistry for he that makes the Objection cannot be ignorant of the Figure That men should quarrel with the condescentions of the Almighty That when he is graciously pleased to speak to them they should dispute the Nature of his Voice when he says he has compassion on 'em they should ask where then are his Bowels when he revokes a threatned Judgment they should plead He cannot Divine Animal would'st thou be convers'd with in the Language of Eternity wouldst thou be treated with in the ineffable Dialect of Heaven Alass fond Creature thou art Elemented and Organ'd for other Apprehensions for

in Ecclesiastical matters hath ingaged its Champions on the diminution and vilifying even of their Temporal Jurisdiction too and encouraged them to make all Civil Soveraignty precarious and depending either on the Will of the Pope that Monstrous head of Anrchy or on the pleasure of the Multitude that Monstrous Body of Confusion whence their Political Writings are every where full of large Pleas for Rebellion of specious Colours and Incitements for Ambitious and Aspiring Men whilst instead of the Solemn Ordinance of God the Natural Jewish and Christian Doctrine of Subjection they have amused the World with groundless imaginary forms of Empire with subtill and pernitious Schemes of Strife Pride and eternal Discord and we may with much certainty averr that all those eager Contentions in our late dark Age concerning Civil Authority where and in whom the Supreme Power should be placed what was its Original its Nature its Extent how far Obedience was required in what circumstances it ceased when resistance became a Duty and such like extravagancies of Stated madness were nourished and maintained by Jesuitical Distinctions particularly that pretence of making use of the Kings Authority against his Person was a noted Stratagem in the Holy League of France II. They have weakned all the necessary and essential Securities of Civil Government All the Rational security that is in Government arises I. From the Natural Conscience of Good and Evil of Justice and Equity seated in every Subjects Breast II. From the Civil Conscience which is superinduced by the obligation of an Oath As for the First Security which consists in Natural Conscience we have already instanced in our Topic of Morality how miserably the Romanists have under-min'd that Principle by making it truckle to the determination and pleasure of their Pope And although that which we call the Civil Conscience which arises from the obligation of an Oath depends chiefly on the Natural one for he who has not a primary Sence of good and evil as he stands in Relation to God will have little regard to his Covenants with Man when either his Interest his Passion or his Humor shall solicit to the contrary yet have they attempted by farther Evasions perfectly to destroy the whole design of an Oath notwithstanding the Remonstrances of Natural Conscience and that either in preventing its ever taking hold of men by their Doctrine of Equivocation or else in shifting off its Force and Authority by the Dispensations of their Popes And is it not an amazing Subject to confider that that Act which the Heathens had in such mighty Reverence which Cicero calls a Religious Affirmation in the presence of God the Divinity of Faith which is taken with that dreadful Solemnity of calling on the Almighty to be an immediate Asserter of the Truth and an Avenger of the Perjury and which God himself hath condescended to as a Security to his own Veracity that I say this Compendium of Divine Worship should lay no more real Tie and Restraint on Men through the Distinctions Reserves and permissions of Rome than the Dreams of Bondage or the Imaginary Chains of Lovers In a word the whole civil Constitution of England and of other Countries in our Circumstances is according to the Principles of the Romanists no other than a Confederacy and an agreement of Robbers for they hold that we have no King no Subjects no Parliament no Laws no Liberties no Properties and indeed none of the Rest because not the last That such are the Roman Principles their continual Treasons and Conspiracies sufficiently evidence especially this late Hellish Plot the discovery and prevention of which hath in a manner engrossed the whole Wisdom and united Sagacity of successive Parliaments and yet the Vein runs deep still the amazement is still great even on the awakened Sense of the Nation Surely our Enemies thought to entitle Heaven to their Plot even by placing it so low as those who dig beyond the Centre are said to dig upwards The unfolding of this Conspiracy seems a business too unweildy for the rashness of Hast it requires the slow advances of working Engines and a temperate Detection that its pure unmingled Malice may be drawn out with leisure and observation and all Mankind may have a Calm and Judicious view of the whole Anatomy of its Discovery Surely our Natives without a Foraign degeneracy without an Importation of Sin could never have been guilty to such a Forlornness could never have designed such contradictions to Religion and Nature they could not without the aids of Spanish and Italian Malice have entailed Revenge upon Posterity and bequeathed their Nephews the Reversion of Murther This is Politick Offence to out-sin Probability to appear Innocent by being to such excess Inhumane That such Religious Butcheries should be contrived against so Just so Merciful a King For though his younger years came roughly on amidst the Rage and Fury of a Civil War though He had been justly exasperated with the most Barbarous Murder of a Father the best of Fathers the best of Kings that we had reason to expect his return like that of a Gyant refreshed with Wine full of indignation Revenge and Slaughter yet has he ruled our Kingdom as some Angel is supposed to rule a Sphere his Government has been as gentle as that of an Intelligence and his Edicts as mild as the Laws of Reason When he might have called down Fire from Heaven on his unnatural Subjects he chose to send up Incense thither and has not so much Punish'd as Atton'd for their Rebellions And behold when he was labouring to unite all Europe to soften the incomplyances of Armed Empires and to reconcile the Jealousies of Power that he himself should be made the publick Mark and the Cessation abroad only give leisure to the Treacheries of his own Court whilst the Ambitious and the Cruel lye embosom'd in the Love and Security of their Slaves are honoured with Panegyricks and Triumphal Arches as if only an open War could Fence off secret Treasons as the Plague is said to keep out all other Distempers and that Clemency that great property that distinguishes a King of Men from a King of Beasts should render Loyalty Contemptible and rob the Crown of its Prerogatives yet so men have Murmured against Providence it self because of its Long-sufferings and rashly pronounced there was no God because he was so Merciful But Heaven hath with repeated Miracles assured us that our King is too Dear a pledge to be delivered over to the Fury of an Assassinate He who was protected by the shade of an Oak cannot be less secure under the Coverings of the Almighty so David could never have faln by the Spear of Saul for his preservation was upheld by Prophesie Wherefore let the Mountains of Gilboah be fruitful and the Inhabitants of the Isles rejoyce for behold our most Gracious Soveraign still lives and may he live to grow old in Empire to bless his Nation with Aged Hands