Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	acknowledge_v	faith_n	true_a	3,733	5	4.5591	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42045	E[p]i[ph]ania, or, A discourse upon the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles by the appearance of a star by Francis Gregory, D.D. and rector of Hambleton in the county of Bucks.	Gregory, Francis.	1678 (1678)	Wing G1891; ESTC R43221	29,752	52

every year to go up and worship at Hierusalem and our Saviour himself whilest he was yet but a Child did do so And yet notwithstanding this express command from God Jeroboam that notorious Hipocrite for his own ends could tell the People thus It is too much for you to go up to Hierusalem He seemes cunningly to consult his Subjects ease but in truth his design was to settle himself the more firmly upon his Throne And thus doth the Devil for his own designes deal with many of us though the Place where we are more publickly and solemnly to worship God be at no great distances from us not half so far as the Markets and Faires which we readily go to yet this cunning Devil for the Establishment of his own Kingdom is apt to tell us either more immediately by himself by our own seduced Hearts or else by such and such cursed Tooles and Instruments of his It is too much for you to go up to the Temple of God And that the Enemy of our Salvation may have the fairer pretence to withdraw silly souls from our Solemn Assemblies he takes the same course which Jeroboam did He sets up his Calves in Dan and Bethel an Anabaptist prating in this Conventicle and a Quaker in that Only here 's the difference whereas Jeroboam's Calves were made of Gold these of ours are made of a far more ignoble Metal Men so Dull Heavy and Ignorant but withall so Presuming Bold and Confident as if their Skuls were made of Lead and their Browes of Brass But were all our Calves like his Golden Ones indeed were all the Teachers of our Private meetings persons of Inoffensive lives and as Choyce Abilities as some few of our Dissenters are or have been yet methinks to worship our God in Dan and Bethel when we should be doing it at Hierusalem to worship God in this Corner and that when we should be in the Temple were a thing more inexcusable in Us then in the Jewes because We have not so fair a Pretence for it as They. For we cannot well pretend what Jeroboam did It is too much for you to go up to Hierusalem the Way is too Long and the Charge too Great Their Temple stood at a far greater distance from most of them then our Churches do from us But suppose we were at much greater distances from the place of Gods publick worship then indeed we are yet to encourage our coming to it for the more solemn service of our God we have a fair example in the Text where we find some Persons of Considerable Quality Men of Great Parts and Learning Wise men who did not stick to come a very great number of Miles purposely to attend our blessed Saviour and shew him that respect which was his due for they tell us We are come to Worship him Come though their way was Long and their Journey exceeding great 2. We may consider the Place whereunto these Wise men came What the First place was the Evangelist tells us There came Wise men from East to Hierusalem but why so Hierusalem was not the Place of our Saviours Birth and what then did these Wise men there 'T is sure that as yet they did not know in what particular place the Messias was to be born and as for the Star 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil that had now withdrawn it self disappeared Whereupon these Wise men having lost their Guide and being wholely left to themselves and their own Conjectures thought it much more likely to find this Royal Babe in the Royal City rather then in any other plate whatsoever But since our blessed Saviour was not now to come into the world with that Magnificence and Splendour which commonly attends the Birth of Secular Princes since he was to appear in a state of Humiliation and in the form of a Servant rather then that of a Temporal King such as these Wise men thought him that the Place of his Birth might be sutable to its other Circumstances it must not be the Great Metropolis but a Litle Town and there too no well Furnished Chamber but a Stable This being a thing which these Wise men could never have imagined God was pleased to send them to Hierusalem there to receive Information from the most Learned men of the Jewish Church that so these Strangers finding him at Bethlehem which the Jews themselves acknowledged to be the Place of his Birth might be the more Confirmed in their Faith and receive yet some further assurances even from This Circumstance of his Nativity too that he was indeed the promised and true Messias And here might we stand a while and admire the most Wise Counsels and Providences of our Good and Holy God! who would not conduct these Wise men directly and immediately to Bethlehem but he was pleased to lead them first to Hierusalem designing thereby as to reproach the Jewish Nation for their gross infidelity so to send these Strangers home with the greater satisfaction and stronger Faith 3. We may consider the Circumstance of Time when these Wise men came In order to this we shall enquire into these Three things 1. When that Star which occasioned their Journey might first appear 2. When these Wise men upon the Appearance of this Star might First enter upon their Journey 3. Within what Space their journey might be compleated As to every one of these Particulars I find a variety of opinions amongst Interpreters who are led only by Probabilities and Circumstances there being nothing certain in any one of our Evangelists to determine the matter this way or that For 1. There is no Text which specifieth the Precise time when this Star did First appear There is litle said more then this We have seen his Star in the East but when they saw it First they have not told us The precise time of this Stars first appearing being left by our Evangelists at great uncertainties Expositors have took their liberty to make their several Conjectures and thus they do it Theophylact saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Star appeared before our Lord was born but how long St Chrysostom answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A very Considerable time before and what that time might be St. Austine tells us more particnlarly thus Ante firmè biennium Almost Two years before And why the Star should appear to these Wise men so long before our Saviours Birth Theophylact gives us this Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far distant from Bethlehem was their habitation that had not the Star given them warning of Saviours approaching Nativity so Long before hand they could not have come timely enough to the place of his birth to find him there and to do what they did But notwithstanding this opinion of these eminent men thus backed with so considerable a Reason other Interpreters are of a different judgment For Great St. Bastl tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉