Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	eclipse_v	light_n	organ_n	144	3	16.6969	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36296	Fifty sermons. The second volume preached by that learned and reverend divine, John Donne ...	Donne, John, 1572-1631.	1649 (1649)	Wing D1862; ESTC R32764	817,703	525

conscience and pinching the bowells by denouncing of Gods Judgements these beare witnesse of the light when otherwise men would sleep it out and so propter non intelligentes for those that lye in the suddes of nature and cannot or of negligence and will not come to heare sol lucernas this light requires testimony These testimonies Gods ordinances may have wakened a man yet he may winke and covet darknesse and grow weary of instruction and angry at increpation And as the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight so the eare of this fastidious and impatient man longeth for the end of the Sermon or the end of that point in the Sermon which is a thorne to his conscience But as if a man wink in a cleare day he shall for all that discerne light thorough his eylids but not light enough to keep him from stumbling so the most perverse man that is either in faith or manners that winkes against the light of nature or light of the law or light of grace exhibited in the Christian Church the most determined Atheist that is discernes through all his stubbornnesse though not light enough to rectifie him to save him yet enough to condemne him though not enough to enable him to reade his owne name in the book of life yet so much as makes him afraid to read his own story by and to make up his owne Audit and account with God And doth not this light to this man need testimony That as he does see it is a light so he might see that there is warmth and nourishment in this light and so as well see the way to God by that light as to see by it that there is a God and this he may if he doe not sleep nor winke that is not forbeare comming hither nor resist the grace of God always offred here when he is here Propter incredulos for their sakes who though they doe heare heare not to beleeve sol lucernas this light requires testimony and it does so too propter infirmos for their sakes who though they doe heare and beleeue yet doe not Practise If he neither sleep nor wink neither forbeare nor resist yet how often may you surprise and deprehend a man whom you thinke directly to look upon such an object yet if you aske him the quality or colour of it he will tell you he saw it not That man sees as little with staring as the other with winking His eye hath seen but it hath returned nothing to the common sense We may pore upon books stare upon preachers yet if we reflect nothing nothing upon our conversation we shall still remaine under the increpation and malediction of Saint Paul out of Esay Seeing yee shall see and shall not perceive seeing and hearing shall but aggravate our condemnation and it shall be easier at the day of Judgement for the deaf and the blinde that never saw Sacrament never heard Sermon then for us who have frequented both propter infirmos for their sakes whose strength though it serve to bring them hither and to beleeve here doth not serve them to proceed to practise sol lucernas this light requires testimony Yet if we be neither dead nor asleep nor winke nor looke negligently but doe come to some degrees of holinesse in practise for a time yet if at any time we put our selves in such a position and distance from this light as that we suffer dark thick bodies to interpose and eclipse it that is sadnesse and dejection of spirit for worldly losses nay if we admit inordinate sadnesse for sinne it selfe to eclipse this light of comfort from us or if we suffer such other lights as by the corrupt estimation of the world have a greater splendour to come in As the light of Knowledge and Learning the light of Honour and Glory of popular Applause and Acclamation so that this light which we speake of the light of former Grace be darkned by the accesse of other lights worldly lights then also you shall finde that you need more and more Testimony of this light God is light in the Creature in nature yet the naturall Man stumbles and falls and lies in that ignorance Christ bears witnesse of this light in establishing a Chrishian Church yet many Christians fall into Idolatry and Superstition and lie and die in it The Holy Ghost hath born further witnesse of this light and if we may take so low a Metaphore in so high a Mystery hath snuffed this candle mended this light in the Reformation of Religion and yet there is a damp or a cloud of uncharitablenesse of neglecting of defaming one another we deprave even the fiery the claven tongues of the Holy Ghost Our tongues are fiery onely to the consuming of another and they are cloven onely in speaking things contrary to one another So that still there need more witnesses more testimonies of this light God the Father is Pater Luminum the Father of all Lights God the Sonne is Lumen de lumine Light of light of the Father God the Holy Ghost is Lumen de luminibus Light of lights proceeding both from the Father and the Sonne and this light the Holy Ghost kindles more lights in the Church and drops a coale from the Altar upon every lamp he lets fall beams of his Spirit upon every man that comes in the name of God into this place and he sends you one man to day which beareth witnesse of this light ad ignaros that bends his preaching to the convincing of the naturall man the ignorant soul and works upon him And another another day that bears witnesse ad incredulos that fixeth the promises of the Gospell and the merits of Christ Jesus upon that startling and timorous soul upon that jealous and suspicious soul that cannot beleeve that those promises or those merits appertain to him and so bends all the power of his Sermon to the binding up of such broken hearts and faint beleevers He sendeth another to bear witnesse ad infirmos to them who though they have shaked off their sicknesse yet are too weake to walke to them who though they doe beleeve are intercepted by tentations from preaching and his Sermon reduces them from their ill manners who thinke it enough to come to hear to beleeve And then he sendeth another ad Relapsos to bear witnesse of this light to them who have relapsed into former sinnes that the merits of Christ are inexhaustible and the mercies of God in him indefatigable As God cannot be deceived with a false repentance so he cannot resist a true nor be weary of multiplying his mercies in that case And therefore thinke not that thou hast heard witnesses enow of this light Sermons enow if thou have heard all the points preached upon which concerne thy salvation But because new Clouds of Ignorance of Incredulitie of Infirmitie of Relapsing rise every day and call this light in question

of Christ when he overshadowed the blessed Virgin did but make man of the woman who was one part disposed by nature thereunto whereas these men make man and God too of bread naturally wholly indisposed to any such change for this power we confesse it is not in our Commission and their Commission and ours was all one and the Commission is manifest in the Gospel and since they can charge us with no rasures no expunctions we must charge them with interlinings and additions to the first Commission But for that power which is to work upon you to whom we are sent we are defective in nothing which they call necessary thereunto This I speak of this Church in which God hath planted us That God hath afforded us all that might serve even for the stopping of the Adversaries mouth and to confound them in their own way which I speak onely to excite us to a thankfulnesse to God for his abundant grace in affording us so much and not to disparage or draw in question any other of our neighbour Churches who perchance cannot derive as we can their power and their Mission by the ways required and practised in the Romane Church nor have had from the beginning a continuance of Consecration by Bishops and such other concurrences as those Canons require and as our Church hath enjoyed They no doubt can justly plead for themselves that Ecclesiasticall positive Laws admit dispensation in cases of necessity They may justly challenge a Dispensation but we need none They did what was lawfull in a case of necessity but Almighty God preserved us from this necessity As men therefore Qui nec jussi renuunt nec non jussi affectant which neither neglect Gods calling when we have it nor counterfeit it when wee have it not Qui quod verecundè excusant obstinatiùs non recusant who though wee confesse our selves altogether unworthy have yet the seales of God and his Church upon us Nec rei nostrae legati not to promove our own ends but your reconciliation to God Nec sine principali mandate not without a direct and published Commission in the Gospell we come to you in Christs stead and so should be received by you As for our Mission that being in the quality of Ambassadours we submitted our selves to those two obligations which we noted to lie upon Ambassadours so here in our Reception we shall propose to you two things that are for the most part practised by Princes in the reception of Ambassadours One is that before they give audience they endevour by some confident servant of theirs to discern and understand the inclination of the Ambassadour and the generall scope and purpose of his negotiation and of the behavior that he purposeth to use in delivering his Message left for want of thus much light the Prince might either be unprepared in what manner to expresse himselfe or be surprised with some such message as might not well comport with his honour to heare But in these Ambassages from God to man no man is made so equall to God as that he may refuse to give Audience except he know before hand that the message be agreeable to his minde Onely he that will be more then man that Man of sinne who esteemeth himselfe to be joyned in Commission with God onely he hath a particular Officer to know before hand what message Gods Ambassadours bringeth and to peruse all Sermons to be preached before him and to expunge correct alter all such things as may be disagreeable to him It cannot therefore become you to come to these Audiences upon conditions to informe your selves from others first what kinde of messages such or such an Ambassadour useth to deliver whether he preach Mercy or Iudgement that if he preach against Vsury you will heare Court-sermons where there is less occasion to mention it If hee preach against Incontinency you will goe whither Is there any place that doth not extort from us reprehensions exclamations against that sinne But if you beleeve us to come in Christs stead what ever our message be you must hear us Doe that and for the second thing that Princes practise in the Reception of Ambassadours which is to referre Ambassadours to their Councell we are well content to admit from you Whosoever is of your nearest Councell and whose opinion you best trust in we are content to submit it to Let naturall reason let affections let the profits or the pleasures of the world be the Councell Table and can they tell you that you are able to maintaine a warre against God and subsist so without being reconciled to him Deceive not your selves no man hath so much pleasure in this life as he that is at peace with God What an Organe hath that man tuned how hath he brought all things in the world to a Consort and what a blessed Anthem doth he sing to that Organe that is at peace with God His Rye-bread is Manna and his Beefe is Quailes his day-labours are thrustings at the narrow gate into Heaven and his night●watchings are extasies and evocations of his soule into the presence and communion of Saints his sweat is Pearls and his bloud is Rubies it is at peace with God No man that is at suite in himselfe no man that carrieth a Westminster in his bosome and is Plaintiffe and Defendant too no man that serveth himself with Process out of his owne Conscience for every nights pleasure that he taketh in the morning and for every dayes pound that he getteth in the evening hath any of the pleasure or profit that may be had in this life nor any that is not at peace with God That peace we bring you how will you receive us That vehemence of zeale which the Apostle found we hope not for you received me as an Angell of God even as Christ Iesus And if it had been possible you would have plucked out your owne eyes and have given them to me Consider the zeale of any Church to their Pastor it will come short of the Pastor to the Church All that Saint Paul saith of the Galatians towards him is farre short of that which he said to the Romanes That he could wish himselfe separated from Christ for his brethren or that of Moses that he would be blotted out of the Booke of Life rather then his charge should When we consider the manner of hearing Sermons in the Primitive Church though we doe not wish that manner to be renewed yet we cannot deny but that though it were accompanied with many inconveniences it testified a vehement devotion and sense of that that was said by the preacher in the hearer for all that had been formerly used in Theaters Acclamations and Plaudites was brought into the Church and not onely the vulgar people but learned hearers were as loud and as profuse in those declarations those vocall acclamations and those plaudites in the passages and transitions in Sermons as ever they