Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	church_n	council_n	4,398	5	6.9787	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48737	Solomons gate, or, An entrance into the church being a familiar explanation of the grounds of religion conteined in the fowr [sic] heads of catechism, viz. the Lords prayer, the Apostles creed, the Ten commandments, the sacraments / fitted to vulgar understanding by A.L.	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1662 (1662)	Wing L2573; ESTC R34997	164,412	526

tired nor Infinity be exhausted but he was pleas'd to put a period to his own extraordinary actings and by his own will determin the products of his boundless power Again if he had pleas'd he could have dispatch'd all his works in a day in a moment and not have made such leisurely progress and have done all at once But he chose a number of dayes to accomplish his great design in six dayes that there might be an orderly proportion and distance of time betwixt the productions of the several creatures and but six that the glory of his workmanship might not receive any disparagement from a seeming delay Now whether these six dayes in which the world was making were meant to signifie the continuance of the world for so many thousand years a thousand years being in Gods reckoning but as a day and the seaventh day of rest to typifie another thousand years of Christ's reign or an everlasting Sabbath in Heaven or whether any other mystery lye hid in the number of seaven whence fond antiquity might appropriate the seaven Planets each to his day and fonder Art divide the week according to planetary hours may be guess'd but cannot certainly be known Wherefore it may suffice us that it pleas'd God so to order his work and so to appoint a holy rest and he sure had very great reason for observing that order and making this appointment THEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SABBATH-DAY AND HALLOWED IT He stamp'd upon it a particular respect set it aside from common imployment and business of life for holy and spiritual exercises that it might be spent in the commemoration of his wonderful works And if the institution were so solemn upon the account of Creation how much more will the memory of our Redemption heighten the solemnity and improve the observance of this holy day which our blessed Lord and Saviour the holy Iesus blessed by his rising again from the dead and hallowed by his apparition and discourse with his holy Apostles who have by their example recommended to the Church of God as the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day of our Lords Resurrection for which reason it is also call'd the Lord's Day Besides this weekly solemnity and day of rejoycing it is acknowledg'd even by those who are no great friends to the Churches authority that the Church hath power to appoint and set aside for the publick worship of God other peculiar dayes as occasion shall require such as are Anniversary Fasts and Feasts nor is the commemoration of the benefits obtain'd by Christ as his Nativity Passion Ascension c. and of the holy Apostles and other Scripture-Saints more ancient though it be handed to us from the most ancient and the best times then 't is convenient the fundamentals of religion being thus scatter'd through the course of the year and the Holy-dayes next to the Lords-day being the great remarks cognisances of Christianity This reason drawn from the creation which is the moral reason of the precept is in Deuteronomie which is the repetition of the Law omitted and another of a politick concern brought in stead of it as if the command were grounded upon an indulgence to servants and that upon a reflection upon the condition of the Israelites in Egypt where they had been made serve in a cruel bondage mention'd in the Preface Though those words there I suppose might be added only as a reason for the servants and the cattles rest and an argument to inforce the equity of that rather then to be the bottom and ground of the Sabbath it self and yet it seems strange that immediately after Moses tells them God spake these words and no more The sense of the command is this Thou shalt take great heed to the observation of my day and shalt sanctify my Sabbath and keep it holy with exercises of publick private devotion Thou shalt wait upon me in my sanctuary and appear before me in the great assembly Thou shalt come to my house in my fear and enter my courts with due reverence Thou shalt attend to my word obey my voice and sh●lt bestow this sacred time wholly on the meditation of my Law Thou shalt receive my word with faith and wait upon me in the use of my ordinances Thou shalt set one day in seaven aside from all worldly concernments and thy usual employment and dedicate it and thy self to me Thou shalt prepare thy self and forecast thy business that no other thoughts may distract thee Thou shalt keep it a holy rest to the Lord shalt cause all that belong unto thee to keep it Thou shalt not do thy own works nor speak thy own words nor think thy own thoughts on that day but be taken up with the study of God's word and with the consideration of his works Thou shalt serve me faithfully on thy six dayes of work in a diligent attendance upon the dutyes of thy calling that thou mayst on my day of ●est meet with a blessing find pardon for thy failings and receive strength for thy performances Thou shalt breed up thy children in my fear and acquaint them with my wayes Thou shalt instruct thy houshold and make me known unto strangers Thou shalt be merciful to thy servants and thy cattle and shalt let them injoy the benefit of the Sabbath-rest Thou shalt so observe this rest as not to give thy self up to sloath and idleness nor spend the time in sports and vain recreations but make it a rest from sin as well as from work Thou shalt more particularly imploy thy self in remembring the Lord thy Creatour and thy Redeemer and thankfully acknowledging his benefits Lastly Thou shalt so pass this weekly Sabbath in holy meditations and a heavenly conversation that thou mayst fit thy self for the celebration of an everlasting Sabbath to be kept hereafter with Angels and Saints in Heaven after thou art deliver'd from the troubles of a wicked world How far have we come short of the observation of the Sabbath in these our times who forget the day and neglect the duty who neither labour on the six dayes nor rest on the seaventh as we should doe who profane the sanctuary and pollute the holy place using no reverence and behaving our selves in Gods presence with more rudeness then we would in the presence of men who have made our devotions but a lip labour and plac'd religion in the ear and have excluded God's word contained in the holy Bible and the wholsome forms of the Church to make room for the bold conceits and seditious discourses of men who have preferred Enthusiasms before the written word who have preach'd up rebellion and sacriledge and demolish'd the Churches of God in the Land broken down the sacred ornaments with axes and hammers who have multiplied sects and heresies and dishonour'd God in his solemn worship and in the publick assemblyes who have made void God's ordinances refus'd to

in his ●y supplyes their wants opens his hand and fils them with his goodness cherishes and maintains them And having built this goodly frame of heaven and earth doth with his everlasting armes what vain story sayes of Atlas support and uphold it or rather as his Vice-gerents are pictur'd with a Globe in one hand and a Scepter in the other grasps the whole world in his hand and dandles it in his lap as a tender hearted mother her playsom child Can he that implanted so tender an affection in all mothers dammes to their young ones himself be without large bowels of compassion full breasts of mercy and a tender bosom of love His goodness exceeds all comparison Though a mother should forget her child yet saith he I will not forget my people Providence is that great dug at which every creature hangs and draws its comfort by which all things are maintain'd whence are issued forth daily allowances and constant provisions dealt out For he commands blessing and deliverance Thou art my shepheard saith the Psalmist and I shall want nothing The Spirit of God saith the sacred Historian mov'd upon the face of the deep that Chaos and first matter out of which the several kinds of creatures were afterwards to be particularly produced A word proper to birds that sit upon their eggs brood them He flutter'd and sate upon it and kept it in a lively warmth and quicken'd that rude lump that he might out of that great confused ball wherein the seeds of things lay jumbled which therefore an ancient Philosopher call'd Natures Egg hatch a well order'd world And since God hath compar'd himself in one place to a broody eagle Christ in another himself to a hen the one teaching her young ones to fly and shift for themselves by carrying them on her back the other clucking her chickens with great pains scraping up their subsistence cherishing them under her wings and with all her might protecting them from rapine We may from these similitudes learn what a dear love and careful fear God hath for all his least they come to hurt God then may very well be styled a Father in this sense too that he hath not only as a Father given being to all things but as a Father of a family provides for al about him furnishing them with convenient accommodations and seasonable supplyes Nor is this all yet but he orders all things disposes chance overrules events to his own ends doing whatsoever he pleaseth both in heaven and earth even as Fathers order the affairs of their family or as magistrates who are the Fathers of their country manage the civil state making lawes and putting them in execution rewarding the obedient punishing the disobedient Indeed all government is naturally bottom'd upon this relation and grounded in a paternal authority the Father at first exercising all power even to life and death over those of his own family nor is a city or common-wealth any other then a more numerous family subject to the same ruler and govern'd by the same laws God then it is that gives order for every thing by whom and when and how it should be done Not a sparrow fals to the ground without his leave The whole series of second causes is but that golden chain the Poets fancied whose uppermost link is fasten'd to Iove's chair He is the Lord of Hoasts such as are the stars in their courses thunder lightning hail snow rain wind and storm fulfilling his word nay frogs and lice when he hath service for them will muster into armies and the locusts gather themselves into bands He knows best what will make for our good and his own glory and by his wise contrivance carry's things in that nature that they shall all work together for those ends He is in the world as a King in his Kingdom Where his word is there is power and who shall say to him what dost thou Angels are his attendants and menials the other creatures his utensils But men though they are term'd vessels too in his great house yet they are priviledg'd with a nearer relation to him They are his children for he is our Father OUR This word denotes a propriety and closer interest seeing he is not our Father alone in that general sense in that he made us not we our selves as he is styled the Father of rain and the Father of lights nor for the greater likeness we have to him more then our fellow creatures which is common to us with the Angels who are therefore call'd the Sons of God But by redemption also having purchas'd us by the Blood of his Son and made us a peculiar people to himself and having begotten us anew by the word and spirit and adopted us by grace that we who are by nature children of wrath might be made the children of God and to which of the Angels ever said he thus my Son Oh! what a condescension of love that God should suffer himself to be styled our Father who have corruption for our mother that Christ should become our brother whose sisters are the worms For if we be sons then are we heirs and if heirs then coheirs with Christ Oh infinite love and kindness unspeakable how dearly obliging an expression that our Saviour who is the only Son of God begotten of his substance should not permit but command us to call God our Father too my Father and your Father sayes he Now as Father is a word of authority and signifies love and care bespeaking from us a reciprocal love a filial reverence and obedience so Our is a note of indearment which should teach us charity which indeed the whole prayer breaths in all the parts of it Give us Forgive us and Deliver us bringing in all mankind to partake the benefit of our prayers And seeing it hath pleased God to own us for children and Christ to make us partners of his relation to become brethren it would very ill beseem the best of saints or greatest of men to disdain any of their fellow-brethren he they never so miserable never so wicked Since were there not a community of the same nature the sense of humanity the tyes of reason and religion and the laws of nations to bring us to some kind of unity and mutual affection God's love to us is an invincible argument why we should love one another WHICH ART And there is none beside thee For whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee Indeed the original doth not so express it making use of the article alone and leaving the verb to be understood which as 't is elliptical so 't is an emphatical kind of speaking He or The in Heaven which should note a superlative excellence above all others to whom the title of Father can belong the

with a hasty death and a Loyall Subject looseth both Life and Lands for his fidelity to his Prince c. To this I answer That this promise is conditional as God sees fit who whatsoever he does does it alwayes for the best and then if he doe not perform his word as to the Letter at present he will be better then his word hereafter Those whom the arrest of death disseizes of an earthly possession he instates into a heavenly inheritance which is indeed the Land of the living and the Land of promise of which Canaan was but a type The young Innocent is snatch'd out of the mother's lap to be lodg'd in Father Abraham's bosom The Loyal sufferer looses to his advantage is sequestred into bliss is murder'd into Immortality and if he lay down his head takes up a crown for it Everlasting happiness is in the best sense length of dayes Besides God may cut him short who has not fail'd in his duty to man for some disobedience to himself and he that 's guiltless and dyes Martyr as to the unjust tribunals of men may in the account of God's justice dye as a malefactor God sometimes reck'ning with the transgressors of his Law and cutting scores as 't were with them depriving them of the reward of one duty for the neglect of some other washing the stain of a guilty life with the blood of an Innocent death And 't is no small comfort to a dying man have he been never so great a sinner in his life that he suffers with a good conscience and is permitted in a manner to quit scores with heaven for his former offences Proceed we now to the summ of the Precept Thou Inferiour whoever thou art that art under another's power or condition shalt give thy superiour the due respect of his place shalt have honourable thoughts of him shalt highly esteem him and revear him as an Angel of God in thy speeches addresses to him demean thy self with humility and meekness and all civil demonstrations of respect according to the customs of thy people giving him the preeminence in every thing bearing with and hiding his infirmities Thou shalt not slight his person nor think or speak meanly of him Thou shalt be subject to him and yield a ready and chearful obedience to him as to the Lord in all things that are just and lawful and bear with his humors and his harshness remembring that though he be man of like passions with thy self yet he is in God's stead and if he at any time swerve from his rule in commanding yet do not thou decline thy duty in obeying but when he bids thee do any thing contrary to my will carry thy self with submission resolve to suffer for a good conscience rather then to resist where thou canst not with a good conscience obey Thou shalt hearken to his admonitions and submit to his corrections and shalt endeavour by all fair means to give him content Thou shalt not withdraw or grudge thy obedience much less shalt thou take upon thee to call him to account nor yet shalt thou basely serve him in lewd offices and wicked designs so as to be an instrument of his cruelty or his lust and to flatter him in an evil way Thou shalt pray for him and assist him in all his just undertakings and shalt return him all the good thou canst for that good which thou receiv'st of him from the influence of his Authority or example Thou Superiour shalt observe the rules of Iustice by giving every one their due thou shalt look faithfully to thy charge rule with diligence lay out thy talents to the best advantage o● God's glory and the benefit of thy Brethren Thou shalt be tender of the concerns of all thy Inferiors and oblige them with courtesie and kindness and study how thou mayst be most useful to community Thou shalt not be proud of thy gifts lift thy self above thy brethren and scorn those below thee Thou shalt not be insolent injurious nor too harsh and severe nor yet too fond and remiss but keep a mean so as to gain their obedience to thy Authority and their love to thy Person Thou Child shalt stand in fear and regard thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother and obey thy parents in the Lord Thou shalt not despise them mock at their weakness and with cursed Cham make merry at their shame but shalt shew them all honour and doe them all service and with thy virtuous behaviour well-doing cause him that begat thee to rejoyce and her that bare thee to leap for joy And when they are old and their strength fails them thou shalt provide for them and see that nothing which they have need of be wanting Thou shalt moreover shew a singular honour to their person saluting them upon thy knee often craving their blessing especially in any business of great concernment as choice of life marriage c. And thou Parent shalt love and take care of thy children and provide fashionably for them that they may have a lively●hood when thou art gone thou shalt breed them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with sweet methods win them to my fear and to the love of virtue Thou shalt not with harshness provoke them to anger nor yet spare correction when they offend or spoil them with indulgence as Heli did to their ruin and thy own sorrow Thou Subject shalt honour and obey the King and his Ministers be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake the Lord having set them to be for a terror to evill-doers Thou shalt pay him tribute and other acknowledgments of thy subjection according to the Laws and custom of the countrey and in an especial manner make prayers and intercessions for Kings and all in authority that we may under them live a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty Thou shalt not raise sedition to bring an odium upon the Magistrates Person his Authority or his Council nor shew any discontent to the disturbance of publick peace nor take up arms against thy lawful Soveraign nor maintain or assist rebellion nor meddle with those that are given to change or any way comply with them or countenance them in their unjust usurpations Thou shalt not offer any violence to the King 's sacred Person but if at any time unrighteous commands are impos'd upon thee have recourse to thy prayers make thy appeals to Heaven to God the King of Kings to whom alone they are accountable and who will in his due time remove the oppression and call the oppressors to an account And thou Magistrate shalt govern according to the rules of my word and the known Laws of the countrey Thou shalt judge the fatherless and regard the widow and doe every one right Thou shalt take care of both Tables of my Law and promote the interests of Religion Thou shalt make wholsom Laws and see them