Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	know_v	world_n	6,978	5	4.3837	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02519	The character of man laid forth in a sermon preach't at the court, March, 1⁰. 1634. By the L. Bishop of Exceter.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1635 (1635)	STC 12647; ESTC S118573	17,473	88

could tell you of a Xerxes that will be correcting the Hellespont and writing letters of threat to the mountain Athos of one of his proud Sultan successors Sapores that writ himselfe Brother to the Sun and Moone of his great neighbour of China that styles himself Heire apparent to the living Sun and the wise Cham of Tartary Son of the highest God Caligula would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dio counter-thunder to God and will bee no lesse then Iupiter Latialis And the Scythian Roylus can say It is easie for him to destroy all that the Sun lookes upon Lord God! how can the vaine pride of man befoole him and carry him away to ridiculous affectations The man after Gods own heart is in another vain when he lookes downward he sees the people crouching under him and confesses his own just predominancy but when hee lookes either upward to God or inward to himselfe he sayes Lord what is man It should not be it is not in the power of earthly greatnesse to raise the regenerate heart above it selfe or to make it forget the true groūds of his own humiliation Avolet quantum volet palea as he said Let the light chaffe bee hoised into the ayre with every winde as Psal. 1. the solid grain lyes close and falls so much the lower by how much it is more weighty It is but the smoke that mounts up in the furnace it is but the drosse that swells up in the lump the pure metall sinkes to the bottome if there be any part of the crucible lower then other there you shall finde it The proud mountaines shelve off the rain and are barren the humble vallies soak it up and are fruitfull Set this pattern before you ye great ones whom God hath raised to the height of worldly honor Oh be ye as humble as ye are great the more high you are in others eyes be so much more lowly in your owne as knowing that hee was no lesse then a King that said Lord what is man The time was when David made this wonder upon another occasion Psal. 8. 3 4. When I see the heavens the moon and the stars that thou hast ordained Lord what is man When looking over that great night-piece and turning over the vast volume of the world as Gerson termes it hee saw in that large folio amongst those huge capitall letters what a little insēsible daghespoint man is he breaks forth into an amazed exclamation Lord what is man Indeed how could he doe other To compare such a mite a mote a nothing with that goodly and glorious vault of heaven and with those worlds of light so much bigger then so many globes of earth hanging and moving regularly in that bright and spacious contignation of the firmament it must needs astonish humane reason and make it ashamed of its own poorenesse Certainly if there could bee any man that when hee knowes the frame of the world could wonder at any thing in himselfe save his owne nothingnesse I should as much wonder at him as at the world it selfe There David wondred to cōpare man with the world here he wonders too to compare man with a world of men and to see that God had done so much for him above others in his advancement deliverances victories But if any man had rather to take this Psalme as a sacred Rhapsody gathered out of the 18. and 8. and 39. Psalmes and this sentence as universall I oppose not Let this wonder be generall not so much of David a man selected as of David a man These two are well joyned Lord What For however man when hee is considered in himselfe or compared with his fellow-creatures may be something yet when he comes into mention with his maker he is lesse then nothing Match him with the beast of the field yea of the desert even there however as Chrysostom every beast hath some one ill quality but man hath all yet in regard of rule what a jolly Lord he is here is omnia subjecisti thou hast put all things in subjection to him Not the fiercest Lyon not the hugest Elephant or the wildest Tyger but either by force or wile man becomes his master and though they have left that originall awe which they bare to him so soon as ever he forsook his loyalty to his King yet still they doe not without regret acknowledge the impressions of Majesty in that upright face of his Wherfore are they but for man Some for his labor as the oxe some for his service as the horse some for his pleasure as the dog or the ape some for his exercise as the beasts of the forest all for man But when we look up at his infinite Creator Lord what is man O God thou art an intelligible sphere whose center is every where whose circumference is no where but in thy selfe Man is a mere center without a circumference Thou O God in una essentia omnia praehabes in one essence forecomprisest all things as Aquinas out of Dionysiw man in a poore imperfect composition holds nothing Thou art light hast light dwellest in light inaccessible Man of himselfe is as darke as earth yea as hell Thou art God alsufficient the very heathen could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is for none but God to want nothing Man wants all but evill Shortly thou art all holinesse power justice wisdome mercy truth perfection Man is nothing but defect error ignorance injustice impotence corruption Lord then what is man to thee but a fit subject for thy wrath yet let it bee rather a meet object of thy commiseration Behold we are vile thou art glorious let us adore thine infinitenesse doe thou pitty our wretchednesse Lord what is man Leave wee comparisons Let us take man as he is himselfe It is a rule of our olde country man of Hales the acute master of Bonaventure that a man should bee rigidus sibi pius aliis rigorous to himselfe kinde to others Surely as Nazianzen observes in one kinde that nothing is more pleasing to talk of then other mens businesses so there is nothing more easie then for a man to be wittily bitter in invectives against his own condition who hath not braine and gall enough to be a Timon depreciari carnem hanc as Tertullian speakes to disparage humanity and like an angry Lion to beat himselfe to blood with his owne sterne Neither is it more rife for dogs to bark at men then men at themselves Alas to what purpose is this currish clamour Wee are miserable enough though wee would flatter our selves To whose insultation can we be thus exposed but to our owne I come not hither to sponge you with this vineger gall but give mee leave a little though not to aggravate yet to deplore our wretchednes There can bee no ill blood in this Amaritudo sermonum medicina animarū this bitternesse is medicinall saith S. Ambrose I doe not feare wee shall live so long as to know

behold the things in heaven it selfe to cast thine eye upon so poore a worme as man it must needs bee a wonderfull mercy Exigua pauperibus magna as Nazianzene to his Amphilochius But God takes knowledge of many that he regards not hee knowes the proud afarre off but hee hates him That of S. Austins is right wee are sometimes said not to know that which we approve not it is therefore added reputastieum thou makest account of him An high account indeed David learned this of Iob whose word is Thou magnifiest him and settest thy heart upon him Iob 7. 17. Now this knowledge this account is by David here either appropriated to himselfe as a King or diffused and communicated to him as a man The fore-text appropriates it the subtext communicates it In the immediate words before had David reported what God did for him as a King that hee was his tower for safety his deliverer from danger his shield for protection his subduer of his enemies for rule and now he addes Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him and the son of man that thou makest account of him intimating that this knowledge this account is of David as a man of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a King of men as the Grecians title had wont to be It is Gods truth it can be neither paradoxe nor parasitisme to say that God takes speciall knowledge and makes speciall account of Kings especially the Kings of his Israel I have found David my servant with my holy oyle have I anointed him Psal. 88. 21. See what a peculiarity here is My servant first by a propriety by a supereminence My servant found out or singled from the rest of mankind for publique administration My anointed when other heads are dry Anointed with holy oyle yea Gods holy oyle whiles other heads with common What should I tell you of their speciall ordination Rom. 13. 1. Immediate deputation Psal. 2. Communication of titles Exod. 22. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 specially of charge and protection 2 Sam. 22. 44. Thus then being chosen thus anointed thus ordained thus deputed thus entitled thus protected well may they acknowledge more then common knowledge and account What will follow hence but that they owe more to God then other men since more respect calls for more duty and that we owe unto them those respects and observances which Gods estimation calls for from us Homage obedience tribute prayers lives are due from us to Gods Vicegerents There are nations of whom God may say Dedi eis regem in ira Even such yet must have all these duties But when the influences of soveraignty are sweet and gentle Sicut ros super herbam we cannot too much poure out our selves into gratitude to God for them to them under God Even so O thou God of Kings still and ever double this knowledge and deare account of thine upon that thy Servant whom thou hast chosen anointed ordained protected to be the great instrument of our peace and thy glory Let us now see the favour diffused to David not as a King but as a man A subject not more large then pleasing what can be more pleasing then to heare our owne praises what more ample then Gods mercies to man we must but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and like skilfull limmers draw up this large face in a penny-breadth or like good market men cary but an handfull to sell the whole sack O God what a goodly creature hast thou made man Even this very outside wants not his glory The matter cannot disparage it If thou mad'st this body of earth thou madest the heavens of nothing what a perfect symmetry is here in this frame what an admirable variety as Zeno noted of old even of faces all like all unlike each other what a Majesty in that erected countenance what a correspondence to heaven How doth the head of this microcosme resemble that round celestial globe and the eyes the glittering stars in that firmament and the intellectuall powers in it those Angelicall and spirituall natures which dwell there What should I stand courting of man in all the rest There is not one limme or parcell in this glorious fabrick wherein there is not both use and beauty and wonder The superior members give influence and motion to the lower the lower supportation to the superiour the middle contribute nourishment to both Was it heresie or frenzy or blasphemy or all these in the Paternians of old revived of late times by Postellus at Paris that mans lower parts were of a worse author Away with that mad misanthropy there is no inch of this living pile which doth not bewray steps of an all-wise and holy omnipotence But oh the inside of this exquisite piece As Socrates Cleanthes and Anaxarchus though heathens truly said That is the man this is but the case Surely this reasonable soule is so divine a substance and the faculties of it invention memory judgement so excellent that it selfe hath not power enough to admire its owne worth what corner of earth what creek of sea what span of heaven is unsearcht by it how hath it surrounded this globe and calculated the stars and motions of the other what simple or what metall or minerall can bee hid from it what eclipse or conjunction or other postures of those celestiall bodies can escape its certaine prediction Yea O Lord it can aspire and attaine to know thee the God of spirits the wonderfull mysteries of thy salvation to apprehend I meane never oh never to comprehend the wonderfull relations of thy blessed and incomprehensible essence Divinae particula aurae Lord what is man that thou thus makest account of him I feare I shall make this Topaze but so much the darker by polishing but as wee may shortly Next to that the tongue hath not skill enough to tell the wonders of it selfe That little filme the interpreter of the soule how sweete notes how infinite varieties of expressions can it forme and wel-neare utter what ever the mind can conceive where other creatures cā but bleat or bellow or bray or grunt not exceeding the rude uniformity of their own naturall soūd By this we can both understād our selves blesse our maker whence it is that David justly styles his tongue his glory Besides his person how hast thou ô God ennobled him with priviledges of his condition How hast thou made him the sole survayor of heaven the Lord of the creatures the commander of the earth the charge of Angels Lord what is man that thou makest this high account of him But what is all this yet in comparison of what thou hast done for our soules I am now swallowed up O God with the wōder and astonishment of thy unconceiveable mercies What shall I say that ere the world was thou lovedst man that should be with an everlasting love hast thou embraced him whō thou madst happy and foresawest forlorn and miserable The Angels fel thou