Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	earth_n	fire_n	great_a	4,376	5	3.2677	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58808	Practical discourses concerning obedience and the love of God. Vol. II by John Scott ...	Scott, John, 1639-1695.; Zouch, Humphrey.	1698 (1698)	Wing S2062; ESTC R32130	213,666	480

beneficial Course and Order wherein he first created them For we see the Heaven and the Elements still as kind to us as ever the Sun Moon and Stars do still run the same Courses and still they cherish and refresh us with the same benign Influences and though for six Thousand years together they have been perpetually visiting us and spending the liberal Alms of their great Creator upon us yet to this Day they are neither wearied nor exhausted but still continue to do us good with the same Freedom and Vigour as when they first danced round the World and sang together for Joy The Fire and Air and Earth and Water are still as liberal to us as ever and do supply us with the same Necessaries of Life as they did from the first Moment of their Being and though for so many Ages we and innumerable other Animals have been liberally maintained out of these vast Store-houses of Nature yet still we find them replenished with an inexhaustible Fulness So that still not only the Earth but all the other Elements are full of the Goodness of the Lord yea and though in their Qualities they are quite contrary to one another yet are their Animosities so tempered by the gracious Providence of Heaven that they all live together like Brethren in unity and the Dryness of this drinks not up the Moisture of that nor doth the Cold of the one quench the Heat of the other The Fire invades not the Air nor the Water the Earth but every one keeps within its proper Bounds and though in sundry Places the Water be above the Earth yet contrary to its own Nature which is to flow and expatiate it self it doth only overlook its Banks but doth not overflow them being bounded by that merciful Providence which in mere Pity to the Inhabitants of the Earth says to its proud Waves hitherto shall ye go and no further So that in short the Continuation of the regular Motions of the Heavens of the Vicissitudes of Seasons and alternate Mutation of Bodies of the safety of the whole Vniverse notwithstanding the rude Clashings of turbulent Matter and of the exact Symmetry of all the Parts of it in Despite of the frequent Rencounters of so many contrary Principles shews not only the Power and Presence of some great Mind but is also a plain Evidence of the Continuation of his Care and good Will to the World And as he hath continued the inanimate World in that most excellent Course and Order wherein he first created it so he hath still preserved all those innumerable Species of Animals which he first gave Being to so that in so many Ages and among so many Chances there is not one Kind of them hath either failed or perished or become less capable of Happiness or less furnished with Means and Abilities of obtaining it So that his Providence is nothing else but a constant Repetition of the Goodness of his Creation and all the Difference between them is only this that in the one he made all Things Good in the other he continues them so 'T is true God hath left himself at Liberty when Occasion requires immediately to interpose in the Course of Nature and to vary from the Order of his Creation And indeed unless he had done so he would in a great Measure have tyed up his own Hands and incapacitated himself from Governing the World but yet he never makes Use of this Liberty but for very good Reason to serve some very great and excellent End of his Government either to punish some notorious Sinner or some very sinful People that so by their Example others may be warned from treading in their Footsteps or to deliver or preserve some eminently virtuous Person or Nation that thereby others may be incouraged to imitate and transcribe their Virtues or lastly to confirm and ratify by some miraculous Effects some necessary Revelations of his Will to the World Unless I say it be to serve some such excellent Ends as these he never interposes by his absolute Power to make the least Interruption in the established Course and Order of the Vniverse And as soon as ever he hath obtained the good Ends that he aims at he withdraws his Hand and immediately remits Things to their primitive Course and Order So that if Gods Creation be good as I have largely proved it is his Providence must needs be so too because it continues the Course and Order of the Creation and never interrupts or varies it unless it be to do some great Good to the World Thus God in his Providence doth continually spread forth the mighty Wings of his Goodness over all his Creation and thereby reaches out Perseverance to the Being and the Happiness of every Creature 2. Another Instance of his doing good in this great Work of his Providence is his continuing Mankind under an awful Sense of Religion notwithstanding the great Degeneracies of human Nature It is very strange to consider how this heavenly Spark hath been kept alive in the midst of such a vast Ocean of Impiety as hath over-spread the World for considering into what monstrous Barbarism Mankind have immersed themselves how miserably they have defaced their own Nature and blotted out their Reason insomuch that in several Ages and several Parts of the World they have had scarce any other Remains of Humanity in them but only their Language and their Shape I say considering these Things it is impossible but all Sense of Religion must long e're now have been extinguished in us had not the divine Providence from Time to Time been exceeding careful to cherish and revive it And this it hath done by very strange and extraordinary Methods sometimes by inflicting strange and amazing Judgments upon great and notorious Offenders sometimes by showering down miraculous Blessings and Deliverances upon virtuous and good Men sometimes by raising up eminent Examples and Preachers of Righteousness such as the Patriarchs among the Jews and the Philosophers among the Gentiles sometimes by making immediate Revelations from Heaven and confirming the Truth of them by miraculous Effects and sometimes by permitting evil Spirits to appear to possess the Bodies of their Enthusiasts and to deliver Oracles by them which though it sometimes tended to promote false Religions among Mankind yet did always prove instrumental to cherish and enliven the Sense and Belief of a Divinity By these and such like powerful Methods hath the good Providence of Heaven from time to time revived in us the dying Sense of Religion and in Despite of our selves continually kept us under its Aw and Restraints which if it had not done we should have immediately run headlong into the most deplorable Confusions and Disorders For not only our eternal but our temporal Interest too is bound up in Religion for this is the Foundation of all human Society and of all the Blessings that redound from it 't is this that gives Life and Security to all those Pacts

never be able to forbear admiring the Skill and adoring the Wisdom and Goodness of the great Harmostes But since 't is so impossible for us to discern all the Connections and Tendencies of God's Actions how unreasonable is it for us to censure the Goodness of his Nature because there are some Actions of his and some Effects of those Actions whose Goodness at present we are not able to discover Wherefore if we have either Reason or Modesty in us we ought to be satisfied with those Arguments of his Goodness that are drawn from the Principles of his Nature and though we cannot account for the Goodness of all his Actions in particular yet firmly to resolve that nothing but Good can come from a good God PSALM CXIX 68 Thou art good and thou dost good I Proceed to the second Part of the Text viz. the Operations of God that flow from the immutable Goodness of his Nature Thou dost good And these as they flow from the Goodness of God's Nature so they are plain Proofs and Indications of it For as the Nature of Things is demonstrable by their Effects as well as their Causes so the Goodness of God may be as well demonstrated by the Operations it exerts and the Effects it produces in the World as by those Principles and Perfections of his Nature from whence it necessarily arises And it is as certain that that Being must be good that hath all the necessary Causes and Principles of Goodness in it for if it were indifferent to the Almighty whether he did Good or Evil he would doubtless either retire from Action and do neither or else he would do as much Mischief as Good or if he were inclined to do ill he would do it and not force himself to act contrary to his own Inclinations Wherefore since he doth Good so constantly and so universally he can neither be supposed to be averse nor indifferent to it and if he be neither of these his doing Good must necessarily proceed from the immutable Inclination of his Nature thereunto If therefore we can prove from the whole Course and Series of God's Operations that he doth Good it will be an infallible Argument that he is so Now all those Operations of God that pass out of himself and terminate upon others are reducible to Creation and Providence both which will afford us abundant Instances of the Truth of the Text that God doth Good I. I begin with the first viz. Creation in which it is apparent that God hath done an infinite deal of Good And hence the Psalmist tells us that the whole earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psalm xxxiii 5 so also Psalm civ 24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy Riches i. e. the Riches of his Goodness and so is the great and wide Sea And God himself after his great Work of Creation upon a general Survey of the whole Fabrick of Beings pronounces all to be very good Gen. i. 31 But to demonstrate more particularly the great Goodness that God hath expressed in his Creation I shall briefly give you these four Instances of it 1. That whatsoever Beings are incapable of Happiness in themselves he hath made them so far as they can be subservient to the Happiness of others 2. That he hath given actual Existence to all kinds of Beings that are capable of any Degree of Happiness 3. That he hath furnished them with all the sufficient Means and Abilities to obtain the utmost Happiness that they are capable of 4. That in all those Beings that are capable of Happiness he hath implanted a natural Disposition of Doing Good to others 1. That whatsoever Beings are incapable of Happiness in themselves he hath made them so far as they can be subservient to the Happiness of others For it is impossible that all Beings that are capable of Happiness could ever have been actually happy had not God created some Beings that are utterly incapable of it For thus all the Heavenly Bodies the Air and Earth and Fire and Water are Beings utterly incapable of Happiness they being all inanimate and consequently void of all Sense and Perception either of Happiness or Misery but yet it cannot be denied but they are indispensably necessary to the Happiness of a World of animated Beings that are capable of some Degrees of Happiness Thus for instance the Happiness of all sublunary Things of Men and Beasts of the Fowls of the Air and the Fishes of the Sea depends in a great Measure on those dead inanimated Elements and therefore if God had not created some Beings incapable of Happiness there are many Beings that are capable of it must either have not been or have been miserable And therefore God hath not only created these but out of his great Goodness to his living Creatures he hath created them in such an Order as renders them as subservient as they can be to their Welfare and Happiness Thus the Sun whom God hath ordained the universal Foster-father of all sublunary Beings though he feels no Happiness himself is created by our great Benefactor in such a Form and put in such a Course of Motion as renders him most serviceable to all those animated Beings that are capable of Happiness For first he is created of a fiery Substance by which he not only enlightens this lower World but warms and cherishes it with a fruitful and vigorous Heat And then God hath cast all its mighty Substance into the Figure of a perfect Globe that so if the Earth moves round it it might be able to communicate the comfort of its Light and Heat to it throughout all the Circle of its Motion or that if it moves round the Earth it may by its Figure which is most apt for Motion be the better enabled to walk his Rounds about the World and so visit all his Foster-Children and refresh them with his Light and Warmth as oft as their Necessities require And then for his Situation in the World what an exact Care hath the good Father of Beings taken to place him in such a convenient Distance as that he might neither be too near us nor too far from us both which would have been equally mischievous For had he been advanced higher in the Heavens he would have left us continually frozen and benighted had he been thrust lower he would have perpetually scorched us with the too near Neighbourhood of his Flames But from that Orb wherein he is placed all his Aspects on us are benigne and Thanks be to a good God we neither want his Heat or Light nor are we scorched and dazled by it For if God had not been very careful of the Publick Good he might as well have fixed the Sun in the Orb of the Moon as where it now is and then as its Nearness to us would have turned the World into a Torrid Zone so it would have