Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	idol_n	prince_n	toad_n	36	3	15.9739	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20559	The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandements gathered from the mouth of a faithfull pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholler in Cambridge.; Plaine and familiar exposition of the Ten Commandments	Dod, John, 1549?-1645.; Cleaver, Robert, 1561 or 2-ca. 1625.	1603 (1603)	STC 6967.5; ESTC S5010	304,208	396

and his word and ministers is not so hote for the most part but that a few idle clamors and false accusations will quickly coole it and then haueing drawne vs from the true worship of God wee are easely caught and perswaded to any thing so that no opinion can be so fantasticall and hereticall but if the author of it can bring vs in dislike with Gods seruice and his ministers wee shall bee ready inough to imbrace it and to follow it But sith our nature is so prone and inclinable to this sinne wee must not come in the companie or place where idolaters and idols bee nor let our eyes once looke vpon them for if wee doe it is to be feared least that which hath poysoned and infected others may poison and infect vs also Also this serues to confute the rash boldnesse of many that nothing considering their owne nature nor the filthinesse and poison of idolatry dare say that none shal be able to infect them or hurt them indeede many may say to their shame that none shall make them worse for howsoeuer it cannot be but some addition will bee to their sin yet they be so bad already that they can hardly be made much worse by any companie yet many such there be so bold foole-hardy that thinke it a childish thing to feare least one should be drawne to worship an idoll what should I bow to an image or looke for any good from a stocke and a stone but what will they say of Salomon was hee a foole did hee want wit nay hee was fild full of all wisedome and was beloued of God yet when hee would be familiar with idolaters he could not keepe himselfe but he was ouertaken with idolatrie And Amaziah a man in the beginning of his raigne that walked outwardly in the vvaies of God and was for other matters a good and valiant prince when hee would but looke on these adulterers idols he was caught though it seemed he had many things to keepe him back for he had then experience of their weakenes how that they could not help the Edomits as after the Prophet tolde him Therfore this is not courage in many that will not care to go into the houses of idols to looke on thē gaze on their ornaments pictures they are not afraid to go to see heare the masse such like things indeed a vagrant a runnagate that hath nothing cares not whether he goes it is all one with him to goe by night or by day to goe in the most dangerous places as the safest not because he hath more courage strength but because he that hath nothing can loose nothing and so these vagrants and runagates in religion that haue no pietie nor feare of God they care not to bow and stoope and doe any thing to idols but he that knowes his owne frailtie and his nature what it is and hath any thing to loose or keepe will take heed and beware in what places and company hee comes least hee take hurt and infection by them For men must not thinke that ministers haue least strength courage of any other or are the most dastardly and weake men because they vvill not willingly come in ill company among ill persons heare ill words but they know the curse of God on those that doe so and they know their owne weakenesse and frailtie and in this regard as euery one hath more vertue and more godlinesse so he will more beware of any thing that may hurt him or infect him So much for the generall in that hee stands so largely in forbiding all manner of idols and all manner of vvorship shewing how apt wee are to seeke shifts in this point Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any idoll IN that God first forbids the making then the worshiping of idols The doctrine that we learne from hence is that he that would auoide idolatrie must auoide idols as in the corporall marriage those that would auoid adulterie must auoid adulterers so in the spirituall marriage those that will keepe themselues from idolatry must keepe themselues from idols Therefore the holy Ghost himselfe 1. Iohn 5. saith Babes beeware of Idols meeting with a secret obiection that might bee made Indeede I hate idolatrie but yet to haue idols to put me in minde of God and to beautifie the place that I trust is no such perill Yes it is beware of idols if you will be freed from idolatrie put away all prouokements and inducements to it Now of these idols some are more damnably blasphemous most directly against this commandement and those are such as are made to represent any of the three persons in Trinitie the Father Sonne or holy Ghost and these what euer pretence or purpose one hath in setting them vp are simply euill Therefore Deut. 4. 12. Moyses shewes the people that vvhen God came purposely to shew his power neere vnto them and to speake in their eares yet hee shewed no image nor resemblance of himselfe but onely they heard a voice and therefore in any case they should not goe about to make any image to represent God vnto them So Isai 40. 18. Whereunto will yee liken mee what similitude will yee make of me There he shewes the cause of making of images to resemble God is because we cannot conceiue of him and his greatnesse so as we should for if heauen and earth and all things in heauen and earth be compared to him they are not onely nothing but lesse then nothing and therefore what thing can they finde to set forth Gods Magestie vvhat comparison is betwixt a spirituall substance and a bodily betwixt a thing infinit and finit betwixt that that containes all things in himselfe and that which is lesse then nothing Therfore it is a blasphemous debasement of his Magestie and lifts not vp our harts vnto him but drawes downe our harts from him to conceiue carnally of him as of those things which we see If we should see a man haue snakes and toades and adders in great account and reuerence and if wee aske him why he gaue such honour to these things why because I set them vp as pictures of my prince I but is there no other thing to set out your prince these be not fit things nor comely to put you in remembrance of your soueraigne who will not say that this were a great disgrace to the prince But now there is a thousand times more agreement betwixt the greatest prince and a toad then betwixt God and an idoll for the toad is a creature of God as well as the prince but an idoll is the worke of mans fingers a toad hath life and sence excellent gifts and wherein it something resembles the prince but to set God out by any Idoll him that is infinit in wisedome by a senceles thing him to the vvorkmanship of mans hands that cannot sufficiently bee conceiued by all his owne workes what a

least occasion to breake out from keeping of them as we may mark here First he saith Thou shalt make to thy selfe no Image No might some carnall man say indeede vve vvill make no Image of any earthly thing for these cannot set out God well enough but for heauenly things those be more excellent therefore to preuent this God shuts out all excuses saith that no man must make the Image of any thing in heauen or in earth or in the sea or in any place vvhatsoeuer But yet flesh vvould shift and say indeed it is true vve must make no resemblance or Image or peece of an Image of any thing but this is ment that it must not be done to that intent to giue any diuine vvorship to the Image it selfe and to honour that as God but vve may make these Images to help vs in vvorshipping God Nay saith God thou shalt not bow downe nor vvorship them j. neither giue them the greatest honour nor the least honour nor any honour at all so that God meets vvith euerie obiection that our flesh might haue no pretence of breaking this commandement left it Then the grieuous threatning that God vseth to affright men from it shewes that they are easie vvilling to be drawne vnto it and that there is a strange promise and inclination in euery mans nature to this sinne of false vvorship So in Deut. 7. 25. 26. God labours vvith the people of Israel there that they should not in the land of Canaan vvhen they met vvith Idols couered vvith gold and siluer couet or touch one parcel of the plate or meddle vvith it for if they did it vvould insnare them it vvould make them remember the Idol from remembring fall to liking and at length to vvorship it therefore it is an abhomination to God and he that vvill keepe a peece of gold of the Idoll it is the next vvay to make him grow a vvorshipper of the Idoll vvhich that God is so carefull to remoue the least occasions that might draw them to Idolatrie shewes that men be vvonderfully bent and enclined to this idolatrie that God hates and this appeares by the example of the children of Israell vvhich vvere the church of God and the seede of Abraham for for all the vvorld else there vvas nothing else but false vvorship the vvhole earth vvas ouerwhelmed vvith a sea of Idolatrie but these Israelites vvere but a vvhile among the Egiptians and vve see how soone they vvere infected vvith their disease but vvhen God had puld them out of that hell of the world that vvas so full stuffed vvith all such abhomination brought them into the vvildernesse vvhere they vvere alone no people else to prouoke them to it yet vvhen Moses that restrained them vvas away but fortie daies then they tooke libertie and the lust that had bene smothered by his presence now brast forth and they gaue themselues all that they had most part of them to Idolatrie and to a calfe And after vvhen God had brought them into the land of promise and they had bene ther a vvhile they could no sooner haue any little space of prosperitie and ease but presently they runne a madding after the Idolls of the land so that God vvas faine almost continually to keepe them vnder vvith afflicton and trouble And then after vvhen Dauid Salomon had raigned one vvould haue thought that in that space all reliques and remembrance of Idolatry had bene quite banished swept away so that no man should euer haue perswaded them to fall to vvorship calues againe But no sooner had Ieroboam parted vvith the house of Dauid and set vp two calues but vvithout any stay the vvhole tenne tribes generally became vvorshippers of calues so that the two calues vvhich he set vp could doe more harme then all the good instructions and examples that vvas in the dayes of Dauid and Salomon could doe good to keepe them from Idolatrie And vvhen Rehoboam had a little ease he began to set vp Idolatrie and then the people quickly yelded vnto him so that both Isarael and Iudah vvere quickly polluted and ouerrun vvith false and Idolatrous vvorship But after vvhen Hezekiah came hee vvas a good man and stood for Gods vvorship and so neere as he could swept away all monuments of the Idolatrie of Iudah yet shortly after vvhen Manasses came vp the people vvere turned the vvrong way againe and then they grew more mad then euer before for then he would kill all that would hold vp their heads for Gods true worship and would not yeld to his inuention so that he fild Ierusalem with innocent bloud from corner to corner So we might see it among our selues in popery no wal or window or house or church but it was ful of Idolls for when God withdrew the light of his spirit a while all was ouerwelmed with Idolatrie so prone is our nature to this spirituall whoredome The vse of this is to teach vs to auoyd all meanes and occasions that may draw vs vnto this filthie sinne In which thing when Salomon was not verie circūspect but would marry with superstitious wiues how quickly did he grow supersticious like them And Amaziah when he had ouercome the Edomits put them to flight so that they were constrained to leaue their Gods and flye for their liues yet the verie looking on these Idolls did infect him for as the eyes of an harlot and looking on her will infect one with vncleannesse so the looking on an Idoll will pollute an ignorant and blinde hart and bring it to confusion But Dauid did otherwise for when he was following the Philistines and had them now in chase so hard as they were driuen to leaue their gods and runne for their liues yet he left pursuing them and had rather stay for he found a greater work then slaying his enemies because he knew that such was the corruption that was in his men and himselfe as that these Idolls might haue done them more harme then all the Philistins could and therefore that none might be infected and corrupted by them he and his men tooke them all burnt them with fire Therefore if wee haue any care of our selues and to keepe our selues from idolatrie beware of the companie of idolatrous persons for as an honest chast woman cannot bee long in the companie of adulterers but shee shall be stayned with their impuritie and shall get some blot by their filthinesse so it is impossible that one should conuerse long with idolaters and not get some taint of their superstition For as an adulterer will first striue to draw the wiues minde from hir husband and accuse his lawes and dealings as hard and vniust and afterwards endeauour to draw to his owne lure so it is with these spirituall adulterers first they will doe what tkey can to bring one in dislike with Gods pure seruice with his ministers ministrie as indeede our loue of Christ