Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	little_a	sea_n	see_v	1,312	5	3.4874	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04191	A treatise containing the originall of vnbeliefe, misbeliefe, or misperswasions concerning the veritie, vnitie, and attributes of the Deitie with directions for rectifying our beliefe or knowledge in the fore-mentioned points. By Thomas Iackson Dr. in Divinitie, vicar of Saint Nicholas Church in the famous towne of New-castle vpon Tine, and late fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford.; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 5	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.	1625 (1625)	STC 14316; ESTC S107490	279,406	488

former levell so is it likely many of these querulous Romanes did resume their wonted perswasions of divine powers and their favour towardes mankinde after their turbulent thoughts begun to settle and their disquietted minds recover their naturall seate or station Others more blinded by obstinacy did finally mistrust all former apprehensions being neither cleare nor perfectly observed for meere fancies as weake or dimme sights vsually suspect whether they truely did see such things as in farre distances appeared by short and sudden glymses or their eyes did but dazle 8. But all in this place we intended was to search out the originall if not of all yet of some more principall branches of habituate and obdurate Atheisme vnto which search this observation of indulgence to violent passions or pettishnesse of hopefull desires not satisfied was thus far pertinent that these do settle men otherwise by nature and education not irreligious in the very dregs of these impieties Nor is man as was lately intimated like vnto inanimate creatures whose naturall disposition or inclination cannot be preiudiced by custome Stones though they be moved a thousand times one way their aptitude notwithstanding vnto such motion is no way greater in the last course then in the first Farre otherwise it is with man who as he hath naturall apprehensions of goodnesse so hath he inclinations vnto evill no lesse imbred or naturall the strength of whose bent to burst out into all vngodlinesse is alwayes increased by their actuall motions vnlesse reason exercise her authoritie over them either by substracting their incernall nutriment or by preventing outward occasions which provoke them or by taking them at best advantage when they haue spent themselues in the retire Not thus prevented or controuled in time the habits which naturally result from frequencie of their outrage may come to be no lesse stiffe than they are violent The manner how these fits of passion grow into such grievous rooted diseases is as if we should imagine a stone by often mooving downewards every time to retaine some one or few vntill it had at length incorporated all those degrees of gravitation which naturally accrew in the motion into its permanent weight so as laid in a iust ballance the setled sway of it should be as great as the actuall force of its wonted descent perpetually able to counterpoise as heavie and massie a body as the fall of it from an high tower supposing it had fallen into the opposite scale could haue stirred or elevated Of all passions such as worke inwardly are most dangerous because their growth is insensible and vnobservable Such are fretting iealousies ambitious discontents eagernesse of revenge or other desires overmatched with impotencie of effecting them Generally all grievances which haue no vent without which humane affections like to liquors kept in close vessels or nipt glasses secretly multiply their naturall strength Strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat intus Cogitur vires multiplicare suas As all passions obscure the vnderstanding for the present so the setling of them into habits brings a perpetuall blindnesse vpon the soule alwayes breeding either obdurate Atheisme pernicious Heresie or Idolatrie CHAPTER V. Of habituated or setled Atheisme Why this disease was not so Epidemicall in ancient as in latter times Of the disposition or temper from which irreligion or incogitancie of divine powers which is the first and lowest branch of Atheisme vsually springs 1. THE Pharisee though for his conversation and civill carriage precise and strict in respect of most his ancestours did yet exceed them farther in hardnesse of heart than he came short of them in outragiousnesse of passion The sight of our Saviours miracles and experience of his good life would I am perswaded sooner haue wonne the most Idolatrous or boisterous of his forefathers than him or his sober associates vnto true beliefe From consideration of this his temper besides other inducements I haue elsewhere observed people auncient whether in respect of the generall course of the world or of succession in severall kingdomes to haue beene vsually more rash and impetuous in their attempts but not so setled in resolutions which were impious as their successors in time are and haue beene The bent of their nature did sway a larger compasse and to vse the Mathematicians dialect described a greater circle by it actuall motions Hence were they more easily drawne by the peculiar inticements of those times to greater outrages than men of their ranke commonly by ordinary temptations now are Howbeit for the same reason they were more quickly reclaimed by such corrections as moue not our mindes once set amisse 2. And this in part may be the reason why Atheisme was not so habituated nor the deniall or doubt of divine providence so stiffe in them as in the irreligious of our dayes Consonant hereto are the causes before assigned of posterities mistrusting the reports of antiquitie vnto which we may adde this observation not altogether the same with them nor quite different The visible characters of this great booke of nature were of old more legible the externall significations of divine power more sensible and apter to imprint their meaning both purposely suited to the disposition of the worlds non-age which for secular cunning or artificiall observation was for the most part rude and childish in respect of those times and Countries wherein Atheisme through mans curiositie came to full height and growth 3. Those Marriners with whom Ionas sayled in calling every man vnto his God and rousing their sleepie passenger to ioyne in prayer with them did no more then many of their profession in this age vpon like exigences doe A raging sea will cause the naturall notions of God and goodnesse to worke in such as haue taken little or no notice of them by land as one vpon this experiment wittily descants Qui nescit orare discat navigare But few of our time would trouble themselues in such perplexitie with searching out the causes of sudden stormes or if they did the causes ordinarily assigned by the experimentall Weather-wizard or naturall Philosopher would content them Fewer I thinke would make enquiry for whose speciall sinne their common prayers for deliverance were not heard seeing God daily accustometh vs to like repulses in particular dangers the oftner no doubt because we examine not our hearts with like diligence in like extremities nor powre forth our soules with such fervency as these Marriners did Their resolution to find out the author of their ill successe as Iosuah did Achans by lot perswades me the observations of grace and nature did not then iarre so much as now they doe They saith the Psalmist that goe downe to the Sea in ships that doe businesse in great waters These see the workes of the Lord and his wonders in the deepe for he commandeth and raiseth the stormy winde which lifteth vp the waues thereof They mount vp to the heaven and they goe downe againe to the depths their

à Ioue pluviam comprecantis scribit Pausanias Cornar de Re vinitoria lib. 1. cap 8 pag. 56. Some whether halfe Christians or meere Pagans ranked by the auncient in the bed-rolle of heretickes haue held the Marigold and like flowers not vncapable of divine honour by reason of their liue-sympathie with the Sunne The auncient Galles did offer sacrifice vnto the Mistleto because the manner of its originall is without example in vegetables being caused as they conceived rather by secret celestiall influences than by any earthly or materiall propagation So easily are mindes apt to admire things strange and vncouth drawne through curiositie of observation vnto superstitious and idololatricall performances That in strange predictions we should apprehend the working of a divine wisedome which we apprehend not in our ordinary cogitatiōs though in them he alwayes worke falls out no otherwise than the like error in the common sort of heathen in whom trees of vnusuall height or like spectacles did raise an imaginatiō of Gods presence which sight of grasse of ordinary hearbes or lower shrubbes though in the lowest of them he be continually present could not prompt vnto their drowsie fantasies As seldome are our imaginations so throughly awaked as to take expresse notice of Gods presence without strong pushes of vnusuall accidents or violent incursion of vnacquainted obiects· Much familiaritie breeds contempt of their persons whose presence were it rare and vncouth would beget admiration awe and reverence This experiment so certaine in civill conversation that it is now growne into a Proverbe is rooted in that vndoubted Maxime in matters naturall A consuetis nulla fit passio and it beares no better fruit in matters Theologicall For albeit Gods presence be most intimate in our soules and his working in other creatures manifested vnto our eyes yet because this contact of his presence is perpetuall and the manifestation of his power continually obvious wee vsually haue no sence or feeling of the one or other vntill it touch vs after some vnusuall manner or open our eyes by presenting them with wonders Howbeit whilest these are absent to shake of the slumber and to inapt vs that are Christs Ministers to be affected with Gods presence such abstraction of our selues from secular turbulencies as the Poets vsed would be much availeable Carmina secessum scribentis otia querunt Good verses alwayes doe require A vacant minde and sweete retire Another thought he alwaies lost himselfe in the great preasse at Rome without hope of finding himselfe till he and his wits met againe at his rurall home Mihi me reddentis agelli And is it possible wee should not perceiue a great losse of Gods presence so long as we continue in places filled onely with the sound of secular contentions or debatements wherein the world and devill finde opportunitie to instampe their image vpon our soules preventing all impression of matters heavenly But when we come into solitary or vncouth places either deckt with natiue comelinesse and vnborrowed beautie or never soyled by secular commerce or frequency the conceipt of God and his goodnesse gaines first possession of our vacant thoughts and ravisheth our mindes with the fragrancy of his presence To haue some place of retire which hath beene witnesse of no thoughts but sacred is a great helpe vnto devotion the renewed sight or remembrance of every circumstance or locall adjunct occasions vs to resume our former cogitations without any curbe or impediment which in places wherein our mindes haue much runne on other matters we can hardly prosecute without interruption or mixture of worldly toyes 10. Would God it were free to make that harmelesse vse or application of these observations vnto others which I haue often made and hope to make each day more than other vnto my selfe And though I expect not the concurrence of many men no not of my brethren and companions to second me in my desire of that reformation which I haue no great cause to hope I shall ever see in this Land yet can I not deeme it a fruitlesse labour to powre forth my wishes in the worlds sight before Him who alone can doe all things And what is thy servant O Lord could most desire to see or heare before he goe hence and be no more seene or heard amongst the sonnes of mortall men That thy Temples throughout this Land might be more secluse and the liues of thy Ministers more retired That no action speech or gesture which beare the character of conversation secular or meerely civill should once so much as present it selfe to our sences whiles we approach thy dwellings That in these short passages from our private lodgings to thy secluse and silent Courts we might perceiue as great an alteration in our behaviour and affections as if we had gone out of an old world into a new or travelled from one kingdome to another people 11. Had not those priviledges of retired life wherewith superstition had blest her children beene held too glorious by reformers of Religion for reformed devotion to enioy the ingenuous povertie of the English Cleargie might haue made the whole world rich in all manner of spirituall knowledge The losse of Monasteriall possessions had beene light if as in temporall States the honour with some competent portion of auncient inheritance remaines entire vnto the next heire male while the greatest part of the Lands possessed by the father goes for dowrie vnto his daughters so that libertie of enioying themselues which had beene peculiar to them before all priviledges of secular Nobilitie which impaired them might haue beene reserved to the sonnes of Levi though but with some corners of their auncient retired mansions whose magnificēce had brought them vnto nothing Retired life it selfe is such an hidden treasury as were it within kenne of possibilitie to be regained in these our dayes Ecclesiasticall dignities though offered gratis would without equivocation be freely refused even by such as best deserue them He that now brings iron would bring brasse in stead of brasse we should haue silver in stead of silver gold towardes the rebuilding of Gods Temple or he that now scarce brings any quantitie of better mettall well refined to this good worke would bring Pearle Topas the Onyx and every precious stone in great abundance But now through want of these sacred gardens which might haue beene stored with spirituall simples the infectious disease of these Atheisticall and sacrilegious times is become incurable in the Physicians themselues Ambition even in Gods messengers over-groweth age and makes vs more vndiscreete and childish in the period of maturitie than we were in any part of our infancy For few if any of vs or seldome if at any time of our childhood haue longed to put on our best apparrell towards bed-time And yet what trickes and devises over and aboue all that Machiavill hath meditated doe we put in practise rather to over-burden than invest our soules with titles of dignitie