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	heaven_n	word_n	6,641	5	4.7023	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36771	The true nature of the divine law, and of disobediance thereunto in nine discourses, tending to shew in the one, a loveliness, in the other, a deformity : by way of a dialogue between Theophilus and Eubulus / by Samuel Du-gard ...	Dugard, Samuel, 1645?-1697.	1687 (1687)	Wing D2461; ESTC R14254	205,684	344

and in Them the Image and Work of God to the vilest of Drudgeries When the Vnderstanding which is capable of the Knowledge of God and should be exercis'd to the right conceiving of all Virtues and the best Methods of bringing them forth into Action shall be fill'd with Impure Conceptions and wrought up to the Knowledge of all Wickedness and of the readiest ways of reducing it upon all occasions into practice When the Will which ought to be bent to the pleasing of God in an Universal Compliance with his Laws shall be forward in the desiring and prosecuting of Evil and shall rest satisfied in the accomplishment of it When the Memory which is so well fitted for God's Service shall be far from retaining the great Mercies he hath shewed to Men in general and to ourselves in particular in various Circumstances of our Lives When the excellent Things of God's Law are allow'd no room in it but on the contrary when itself is chiefly imploy'd in the remembring of those things which are light and vain in the preserving present to our Minds the readiest ways of bringing about ill Actions and in the keeping fresh those Injuries which by others have been done us whether through Imprudence Passion or Design that we may never upon Opportunities forget to revenge them When the Affections which should be engaged in an Holy Joy at the great things which God hath done for us in an Vnfeigned Love to Him for his being so loving and gracious unto us in a Delight in those Commandments which are so agreeable to the Nature and Souls of Men in an Ardent Longing for that Blessed State where we shall be wholly freed from Sin When these Affections I say shall be turned into Coldness towards God and the Things of Heaven into an hot and eager persuit after those things which minister only to Worldly Advantage or Sensual Pleasures into Ill Wishes towards others Envy at their Welfare Delight in their Troubles or Miscarriages And likewise when our Bodies which are Temples of the Holy Ghost shall be alienated to prophane Uses when our Members which are the Members of Christ shall be made to become the Members of Vnrighteousness our Eyes in beholding Vanity our Tongues in uttering Deceit or those things which Minister not Grace to the Hearers our Hands in doing that which is Evil our Feet in being swift in running to Mischief all of which were made for better Ends. When Men which were Created in the Similitude of God and should in their Actions also be like him shall through Disobedience have their Bodies and Souls brought under to such vile Offices is not the Great God made to serve in the Principal of his Handy-Works on Earth Certainly he is We know among Men there may be a suffering of Indignities in Effigie in somthing that shall represent the Man though his Person be absent or untouched and the Discredit shall redound to him in great measure as if he himself had in Person suffered And will it be otherwise with the Almighty God We are his Image and Likeness in respect of our Souls and both in our Souls and Bodies we bear the Image of his Son our Lord who was pleased to take upon him our whole Nature If therefore Disobedience shall throw such Dishonour on his Image and Workmanship in us although it reach not his Person to hurt that it yet makes him through his Works and his Image too as we are his Works and Image to serve Neither doth it Theophilus any more spare the Almighty in the other visible things of the World. The Sun and Moon and Stars in their Light and Influences The Earth and Sea and all the Creatures thereof in their several Capacities He made instrumental to the Life and Virtuous Actions of Men and through them to his own Praise and Glory And therefore since They as of themselves being Mute cannot Celebrate the Praises of their Creator Man's Mouth is to be theirs and to offer up Praise unto God in their stead Thus did the Royal Psalmist for them Praise the Lord ye Sun and Moon Praise him all the Stars of Light. Praise the Lord ye Heavens and ye Waters that be above the Heavens Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Deeps Fire and Hail Snow and Vapours Wind and Storm fulfilling his Word Mountains and all Hills Fruitful Trees and all Cedars Beasts and all Cattel Creeping things and Flying Fowl Psal 148. So likewise since these Visible Things of themselves are unable to do any Virtuous Deeds in relation unto Men our Hands are in some sort to become theirs through which they are to promote Actions of Justice of Kindness and of Mercy These are the Ends for which they were made and in them all they are to do Service unto God. But Theophilus our Disobedience to the Divine Law turns all these things another way and makes the Holy God in his Creation to be Instrumental unto Services which are quite contrary unto Himself When the Sun shall rise and make the Day only that those Sins may be acted which require Day-light in the Commission When it shall set and Night come on merely for the accomplishing of those Vices which need secresie chiefly and darkness When Malice and Ill Nature shall strengthen themselves by calling to their Aid whatever we possess rather than fall unactive to the ground When what should in Sobriety be imploy'd for the good of ourselves and in Charity and Friendship for the Benefit of others shall be abused to Intemperance Covetousness or Ambition is not God through the Works which he hath Created made to Serve Yea to Serve the worst of Beings his greatest Adversary in the worst of Services Theoph. Were it not that the Creation is by some Religious Men improved to right Ends we might not wonder if it should give Signs that it rather would be reduced to its first nothing than be thus abused to the Dishonour of its Maker and of itself Eubul This Slavery Theophilus the Creature is in a manner sensible of for the Apostle saith Rom. 8.22 The whole Creation Groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now and all upon the aceount that it is made Subject unto Vanity and brought under the Bondage of Corruption It is not willingly that it thus serveth the Prince of Darkness It groaneth and travelleth in pain Which expressions denote the State it is now in to be a State of great Misery and speak forth the greatest longing and the most earnest Expectation to be delivered from it into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Where as those Sons of God shall be freed from Sin and shall do Service pure and uncorrupted unto God so the rest of the Visible Creation which hath too much and too long been forc'd to minister unto Vain Ends and Ungodly Practices shall be asserted also into that Freedom where it never shall be imployed more but in the true Service of God whose Service is perfect

Actions of no Authority in respect of the Injunctions which from God they declared The Vncertainty Theophilus of Examples next will shew us that they of themselves do not oblige us How many of those Examples shall bind us to Imitation is no where in Scripture told us Some of them carry an open unlawfulness along with them Others may well be question'd whether they be rightly honest or not And others that were lawful and good in the Circumstances they when acted were in will be found not so easie to be fitted for our own and all other Mens Circumstances For they admit of an unaccountable variety and that variety may so much alter the quality of Actions as to make some that are lawful to become sinful and others that we are free to do or not to do to become necessary to be done So that either we must be told in how many Circumstances such Examples will hold good and be imitable and in how many they will become unlawful and inexpedient or else every one must be left to chuse what Examples he will and to apply them how he thinks good The former is a Task that no Man will undertake The later would bring in the greatest Confusion of Practice while some would take the bad Examples others misapply the good and so all Edification and Unity would be overthrown And as the Examples are uncertain so are they insufficient And indeed so far as there is an Uncertainty there is in some sense an Insufficiency For should they be never so full in themselves yet if Mens Understandings should generally be so dim-sighted as that they could not through diversity of Circumstances discern how to take right Measures of their Actions from them they would be insufficient as to us But we shall find a great Deficiency of Examples in Holy Writ in that there are Thousands of Actions which are to be governed by Religion as indeed all our Actions are of which we can find no suitable Example in Scripture I need not Theophilus give you nor myself the trouble of gathering together many Instances of Actions to shew what I now say Let Men in the Diversity of Callings that are in the World and in the many Relations that they stand in unto others consider their own Actions and amidst all the Examples of Scripture they will see themselves left alone not having a sure Light from any of them Whence from the Uncertainty and Insufficiency of the Examples as well as from the want of Authority in the Persons no Examples are Obligatory unto us nor to be imitated any further than they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant Theoph. But Eubulus our Blessed Lord wanted no Authority in his Person and his Example was perfect and what Others Example could not do His may may it not Eubul We will therefore consider the Actions of our Lord than whom there never was neither could be a better Pattern in the World and yet we shall find that none of them from his Example merely and without a Law did lay an absolute Obligation upon us to imitate them 1. Some of them were Miraculous Actions and as such we are not bound to imitate them For no Man is obliged to do those things which are beyond the Powers which God ever gave him or hath promised to bestow upon him Such Actions as these are the accomplishments of the Son of God above all others neither hath he nor ever will he impart the Abilities of doing the like unless upon extraordinary occasions and for the obtaining the chiefest Ends the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Souls of Men when they cannot reasonably be compass'd without such Miraculous Actings as at the first spreading the Gospel they could not But ordinarily none will be thought deficient in their Actions because they turn not Water into Wine Cure not Diseases with a Word give not Eyes to the Blind Legs to the Lame and Life to the Dead 2. Some of our Lords Actions were such as proceeded from that Authority and Prerogative which as he was a Prince did belong unto him Of this sort was his sending for the Ass and Colt without so much as having the owners leave or acquainting him with what he did Matth. 21.2 As also was his driving the Buyers and Sellers with a Scourge out of the Temple and overthrowing the Tables of the Money-changers Mat. 21.12 Neither are These to be imitated by us as we are private Men. Whosoever shall take away that which is anothers without his leave and licence and shall use it as their own will be guilty of Injustice And so whosoever as a private Person shall take upon him Magisterially to new Model the Church or the Discipline thereof he usurps that Authority which is due unto our Lord and is imparted to some only who are rightly called thereunto And he deserves the Scourge which our Lord made rather than any Praise for his Actions in this kind 3. Some Actions of our Lord are such as belong to his Mediatory Office by which he interceeds with God for Men not in a Submiss and Precarious manner but by way of Covenant and Merit These we must not imitate He that shall mediate with God upon the account of his own Merit as if he had done whatever was required of him to do and also had supererogated and so might claim as of Right a Reward to himself and somwhat over and above which he might impart to others who have been deficient in their Duty and could therefore expect nothing such an one imitateth Christ no otherwise than to become a Traytor to him and goeth about to share in that Glory which our Lord will not part with to another Nothing but Submission is to be shewn and Imperfection acknowledg'd by us For we have done in every thing less than was our Duty to do and so must account ourselves less than the least of Gods Mercies 4. Some Actions of our Lord are Moral such as respect Righteousness of Life and These we are to imitate But yet These we are not oblig'd unto merely by his Example Now These are such as may be reduced either to the Law of Nature or else to the Gospel as particularly belonging thereunto Those Actions which he did relating to the Law of Nature we also are to do Such are the Worshipping of God the being just unto Men Temperate in our own Persons and such like But the Law within us which as the Apostle saith is written in our Hearts laid an Obligation upon us before to do these things and so the Duty of performing them depends not upon his Example As for those Actions that purely relate unto the Gospel How had we been bound by them unless he had said This I say unto you This do ye Or how could we have known that his Actions should have been imitated unless he had given Laws for the doing the like When we had seen him reproached and bearing