Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	work_n	world_n	worship_v	45	3	7.3678	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30929	Natural theology, or, The knowledge of God from the works of creation accommodated and improved, to the service of Christianity / by Matthew Barker ...	Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1674 (1674)	Wing B777; ESTC R20207	99,798	210

Tri●megist If Idolaters be charged with brutishness that worshipped false gods Jer. 10. 14 18. how much more the Atheist that denies a God And if the Apostle saith of them that their foolish heart was darkened when they debased him in their vain Rites and Modes of Worship Rom. 1. 18. how much more are such dark'ned with folly that deny his Being Though Hell be the Seat of perfect Wickedness yet this Speculative Atheism is not to be found there The Devils themselves believe and tremble And what a monstrous thing then is it that it should be found upon Earth And especially in that part of the Earth where Men have not only the Book of Nature but the written Word of the God of Nature as a Comment upon the works of it for men to think it an height of Wit to be able to dispute against a Deity and a piece of Gallantry to live above the fear of it Men that are rational enough in other things yet in this their Reasons are strangely blinded which shews the strange degeneracy of their Souls in things that concern another World while they are ripe and pregnant enough in things that concern this World For did Men exert their Reason in those things as they can and do in these it would conclude nothing more strongly than that God is It is the proper Office of Reason to argue from the Effect to the Cause why should it not then argue when it beholds the wonderful Works of this Creation these must needs proceed from some Infinite Cause and thereby be led up to the Being of God As when a man seeth a Tree that is extended into Boughs and Branches his thoughts are naturally led to some Root out of which it springs and so when he seeeth a River his thoughts will lead him to some Spring out of which it ariseth why then should we not when we see this visible World have our thoughts as it were naturally led up to a first Being God hath sufficiently by his Works of Creation evidenced to Mankind his Being that they might seek after him And therefore there will be no room left for any such plea in the day of Judgment for any people whatsoever in any part of the world If we had known there had been a God we would have sought him served and worshipped him Doth Man plead I never saw his Being Will we believe nothing but what our eyes see We never saw those Souls that dwell within us shall we therefore not believe we have Souls do not their operations sufficiently evidence their Being in us Nay we do not see the Air in which we breath and yet no Man denies but there is Air. And doth not the Text tell us of the invisible things of God and therefore not to be seen Or will Man plead he was not present when God made this World how shall he then know that he made it If we see an House erected according to the Rules of Art shall we not believe it is the work of some skilful Artificer though we did not stand by and see him build it But of these profest Atheists we have not many instances we read in Ancient Writers of such as Protagoras Diagoras Theodorus c. who denyed or disputed all Deity whom I find quoted and confuted by learned Bradwardine as they were before condemned by the Athenians Brad. lib. 1. Coral 1. pars secund and indeed such were exploded by the Heathen And those that were so yet were not constantly so as to maintain this Opinion to the end In mens serious and retired thoughts especially if they be under some smart affliction the Belief and Sence of a Deity returns upon them Nullus eorum in hac Opinione quod Dii non sunt ab adolescentiâ ad senectutem perseveravit Plato 1. 10. de legibus As a motion that is against Nature will some time or other recur And therefore the Philosopher said that no Man persevered in this Opinion from Youth to Old Age. Nature cannot utterly forget her first and fundamental Lesson that God is and that first Verity that is so deeply rooted in Nature that it cannot be totally blotted out Licet enim noster animus multis inquinamentis abducatur à suo naturali proposito frequens tamen illud recurrit ut exprimat innatos veritatis igniculos Pamel Adnot in Tertul. C. 17. Apo. As that Renowned Carver did grave his own Image into the Buckler of Pallas with such singular Art and Cunning that it could not be removed without defacing the whole Work For the Soul being from Divine Inspiration God hath put the Character of himself upon it which cannot be utterly defaced while its Being continues And therefore the Opinion that denies a Deity is rather a Frolick a Fancy a Dream than a grounded Opinion And when the Soul of Man is itself and converseth with it self and beholdeth the Legible Characters of God's Being written upon this whole Creation such Opinion vanisheth away But yet we find many have this sence of a Deity very weak and the Notion of it very dark in their Souls and many staggerings in their minds about it And not only amongst Heathens but even amongst themselves where the Gospel is profest and preached Yea we find in many that live under the Gospel less sence of a Deity upon their hearts than amongst the most barbarous Nations of the World But of all others these are the most monstrous who study to make themselves Atheists who set their wits on work to frame Arguments against a Deity And they do it to deliver themselves from Service and from Fear 1. From Service that they might be free from the Yoke of serving God for if they own a Deity their Reason tells them they ought to give him Worship and Service and this they account a Yoke and Burthen As those said in Malachi 1. ver 13. Behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it They think they cannot be perfect free men till they have freed themselves from all Belief and Sence of a Deity Aug. de verâ Relig C. 36. To. 1. As Austin to this purpose Quidam propterea putant nihil colendum esse ne serviant Some think no Deity is to be worshipped that they might not serve And Lucretius boasts of Epicurus that he was the first that delivered the World from the burden of Religion Humana ante oculos foedè cum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub Religione Primum Graius homo mortales tollere contra Est oculos ausus c. But are not these Men much mistaken when they have cast off the Service of God Deo parere libertas est Sen. de vita beata which is the true Liberty of Man are they not given up to the Service of base Lusts which is true Bondage And made Drudges to the God of this World who will not be the servants of the true God

his rather than theirs And so all God's Works are said to praise him as they become to Man both the Motives and Subjects of his Praise Had this Creation sprung from God as it were by Natural Emanation or necessity of Nature as some have said as Light out of the Sun or Water from the Spring Or had he made it as men build an House because he needed an Habitation or some service from the Creatures existent therein it might seem to be some eclipse to the Glory due to him But when he was led to it only by a most free Act of his own Will and the infinite goodness of his Nature this renders him therein infinitely praise-worthy Epicurus that did not believe God to be either the Creator or Governor of the World yet said he ought to be magnified for the excellencies of his Being how much more should he be adored by us who know that all things were made by him and behold an infinite goodness manifested therein And we may from the Creation learn these three things concerning the Creator to commend him to us 1. Is Self-sufficiency For he existed of himself and is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Lact. lib. 1. p. 29. as the Oracle of Apollo once said of him and was infinitely blessed in himself before any Creature had a Being and the Creation added nothing to him 2. All Fulness and Perfection of Being existing in him for the Beings of all Creatures Infinitum quodaam Essentiae Pelagus As Damascen speaks of him with their several Perfections did spring out of his Being as Rivers out of the Sea And therefore he must needs have all Fulness and Perfection of Being in himself as what-ever is in the Effect doth either formally vertually or eminently pre-exist in the Cause Logicians that have reduced all natural things under ten Heads or Predicaments do well leave out God as Ens transcendens as a transcendent Being For he is infinitely above all natural things and his Nature infinitely differing from theirs though he comprehends all their perfections eminently in himself God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And much to that purpose we may read in Dionys Areop De divinis nominibus He is Essence Substance Life Light Wisdom Act Power c. Yet not according to what we apprehend of these things And therefore we must take heed of forming finite Images and Representations of him in our Minds as the Heathen did of old form visible Images of him to worship him by But to whom will you liken me saith the Lord Isa 40. Though God speaking in his Word to us finite Creatures represents himself to us by finite Things Se quasi finitum finitis mentibus offert Yet he is infinitely above all these things and it is a true rule nothing can be predicated univocally of God and the Creatures 3. Allosufficiency to his People For he that hath all Good eminently in himself must needs be an All-sufficient Portion For God as one saith him he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is all things that the Creature is and yet nothing that the Creature is All things are in him as in the Fountain and he that abides with God and enjoyes him he drinks at the Fountain whereas others drink at the Stream and at the Fountain the Waters are in their greatest sweetness fulness and purity And though he hath communicated Being to such innumerable Creatures yet he is not in the least exhausted in his own Being no more than the Sun is exhausted in its Light by those streams of Light it is daily pouring forth upon the World In our Metaphysicks we read a distinction of Mundus Archetypus and Mundus Emanationis The former is the Eternal God himself and the other is the Created World So that what-ever is in the World was in God before as the Archetype The Frame and Fabrick of it was first in his own infinite Mind and all the Good Beauty Sweetness that are scattered abroad among the Creatures of the Universe were all first transcendently in himself so that he must needs be All-sufficient to our Happiness For what-ever is the first Original of any Good hath the whole of that Good in it self as the Sun that is the Original of Light hath all Light in it self and so the Sea with respect to Water Now God is the Original of all that Good that is in the Creature of what-ever kind it is and therefore the whole of all Good is in himself Here we have Unity bringing forth Plurality and all Plurality eminently comprehended in Unity As Du Bartas divinely to this purpose speaks Ere Time Du Bart. first week p. 5. Form Substance Place to be themselves attain'd All God in all things was and All in God remain'd And hereupon also we may sit down and be satisfied Though we want many good things that are in the Creature and which others enjoy yet we have them all eminently in him that is the Fountain of all Good and is the totum universale the Universal whole of that partial and particular Good that the Creatures have in their several Beings Omnia habeo neque quicquam habeo nihil cum est nihil deest tamen Terent. Eunuch Acts 2. This is true in Divinity So that we need not be overwhelmed with sorrow when we meet with losses of some created finite Good if we have the Lord himself to be our God That he is a Good sufficient to make the Soul happy appears in this That the Angels are happy in God alone who are Spirits of wider Capacities than the Souls of Men. Yea God is his own Happiness much more is he sufficient to be the Creatures Happiness Whereupon we ought to acquiesce in him Now to reduce this Duty also to Christian Practice let every true Saint that is in Covenant with God praise this God as his God Let him look upon the great Creator of the World as standing in a particular Relation to himself in Jesus Christ and that infinite Goodness out of which all created Good doth originally spring to be ingaged to him to satisfie him and make him blessed for ever as the Prophet Jeremy calls the Former of all things the Portion of Jacob Jer. 10. 16. And by this he hath an advantage of lift up the Praises of God to an higher degree than the Light of Nature could ever raise Man to when he shall praise him not only as a Creator but as his God and his Portion for ever So that Praise is due to him from us But 2. we owe him also the Duty of Admiration For seeing we cannot comprehend him in the mysterious and glorious Works of his Creation we should therefore admire him As one having read an obscure Author and being askt his Judgment about it answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What I have understood in it is excellent and so I judge also is what I have not understood Or rather