Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	element_n	fire_n	13,062	5	7.1789	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60978	Platonism unveil'd, or, An essay concerning the notions and opinions of Plato and some antient and modern divines his followers, in relation to the Logos, or word in particular, and the doctrine of the trinity in general : in two parts.; Platonisme déviolé. English	Souverain, Matthieu, d. ca. 1699.	1700 (1700)	Wing S4776	180,661	144

to ascribe to him a Nature very near and like to that of God for so Eusebius arianizing upon the Nature of the pre-existent Word calls him Hist Eccles lib. 1. cap. 2. The Prince of the Heavenly Host the Angel of great Counsel the Minister of the Will of God the second Cause of all things a God and a King who received the Government from the Father with his Divinity Ask him from whence he took all these fine Titles of the Word he 'll tell you from the Mystical Theology of the Scriptures The current Theology of the Scriptures says nothing of this 't is no matter for that some know how to feign and suppose a mystic Theology which does But 't was not an easy thing to make a God begotten before Ages of a Man born at Bethlehem There 's something that answers all difficulties and that 's another Expedient they have thought on which is to distinguish the two Natures in Jesus Christ the Divine Nature which they call Theology and the Human which they call Oeconomy and to frame hereupon a new Word which signifies nothing because it carries to the Mind at the same time two Ideas that destroy each other viz. Man-God or a God-Man They have left to the Man the History and Facts of the Gospel but for the God they have found out a nobler Gospel in the World of Ideas 'T is somewhat entertaining to observe what the Author of the 2d Homil. in diversos ascribed to Origen says to this purpose Having compar'd St. John to a Spiritual Eagle who soars with a swift Flight into the sublimest Regions of Theology and the greatest heights of Contemplation he afterwards draws a Parallel between him and St. Peter and distinguishes between Faith and Science between Practice which is common to all Christians and Contemplation which is a Gospel for Seraphic Souls He makes St. Peter the Type of Faith and Practice in his good Confession Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God But he makes St. John to be as it were the Model of Science and Contemplation with respect to the admirable Exordium of his Gospel In the beginning was the Word c. St. John says he resting himself alone upon the Bosom of Christ this Privilege or Favour was to him the Sign and Sacrament or Seal of Contemplation This John says he who was not a mere Man but more than a Man since by the Penetration of his Mind and his Wisdom he enter'd into the Secrets of one Essence and three Substances or of three Substances in one Essence This John who deified himself could not by his Penetration reach God himself till he had first made himself a God This is very loftily spoke the Fathers were not content to make a God of the Word they went farther and make a God of St. John too because he spoke so divinely 'T was a Transport of their Zeal and Affection to the Word when they deified the Apostle who had before in their Opinion so well deified the Word This Zeal of theirs extends it self even to the Divine Plato to whom they thought themselves no less obliged for they have done him the Honour to say that when Jesus Christ descended into Hell Plato was the first who came before the Eternal Word of whom he had spoken with that Magnificence in his Writings By virtue of the same true Platonic Zeal Eusebius de Vita Constant lib. 3. cap. 55. calls Constantine an Eagle and honours him with the same Elogy that was given St. John for how great must the Obligation be to this new Apostle for discovering the profound Mystery of Consubstantiality for which the Church was indebted to him 'T is for the same reason that he has the Character bestow'd upon him of being a profound Divine an Expounder of Mysteries the Bird of Paradise c. by the counterfeit Dionysius who has found Books stuffed with the most refined Platonism He who knew so much of the Secrets of the Celestial Court and has told us such News of the Hierarchy of the Angels might as well instruct us in the Nature the Number and the Order of the Divine Persons These mystical Eagles know how when they please to soar beyond the bounds of Revelation and to penetrate into the profound Secrets of the Deity I would say of the Vnity in Trinity and the Trinity in Vnity And what Prasses are due to them for such fine Discoveries Certainly the Author I am speaking of deserves himself the Character of an Eagle for observe how far he advances his Philosophy He will have the Scriptures ' to be an intelligible World made up of four Elements The Historical Part he calls the Earth the Moral Part the Water that Part which is the object of natural Science is the Air and lastly that which is the Object of the most exalted Contemplation is the fourth Element or Fire And 't is this Contemplation says he that the Greeks call Theology Whence he takes occasion to call St. John a great Theologue or Divine Because says he he raises himself far above the Historical the Moral and the natural Objects Thus Dionysius the Areopagite speaking of the same Gospel of St. John calls it supernatural and transcendental Theology In short Mons Daille de Libris suppos Dionys c. c. 16. tells you That one finds in the three other Gospels nothing but the Oeconomy of Jesus Christ but one sees in the Gospel of St. John the Theology of Jesus Christ Hence it appears that the Antients did not call by the Name of Theology that Science which treats of God in a plain obvious manner but such refined contemplative Discourses which speak of him in the abstract way so that their Theology was in a manner the same with what we call Metaphysicks that is the Philosophy of curious abstracted Minds How great an Abuse of the Word was this As if true Theology was not that which had for its Object a sensible Revelation and a plain Gospel suted to the Capacities of the common People which these Gontlemen are pleas'd to call a Gospel that is gross and corporeal How The Chimeras and the crude Imaginations of the Mind of Man shall be compared to the most noble Elements and the first Facts of the Gospel with the Precepts of a good Life that is History and the Moral upon which as upon two firm Pillars are founded our Faith and Practice shall in their account be no more than the terrestrial and grosser Element Is not that to reduce the Science of the Persect to carnal Rudiments I might as well like Homer's Theology who at the same time as he deified Men debas'd the Gods Agreeable to the Model of this noble Theology Eusebius Demonst Evang. lib. 4. and Origen Tom. 2. in Joan. have fancied a certain Son of God whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The theological Son or the Son who is theologized that is without doubt a Son in Idea the Object of