Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	church_n	scripture_n	4,231	5	6.1426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93880	The teachings of Christ in the soule. Opened in a sermon before the Right Honble House of Peers, in Covent-garden-Church, upon the solemne day of their monthly fast, March 29. 1648. / By Peter Sterry, M.A. sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge: and now preacher of the Gospel in London. Published by order of that House.	Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672.	1648 (1648)	Wing S5486; Thomason E433_30; ESTC R204205	36,001	61

all those comforts that have been hitherto left them Let us stand and first looke backward on so much of this our day of visitation as is already past which hath been a day of blacknesse and clouds Then let us look forward upon the evening more terrible and full of horrour which is too likely to conclude this Day Let us say Because we have followed our owne counsailes and not our Saviour's we have brought all these evils upon these Kingdomes Let our hearts within us say this then let them break and dye that Jesus Christ may revive them This is the first Close 2. Close Because we have been no sooner no more humbled our calamities are growne greater Give me leave to pick some sad passages out of that thundring Chapter Levit. 26. 21. If ye will not hearken unto me ver 16. I will doe this unto you I will bring upon you terrour and consumptions ver 18. If ye will not for all this hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more ver 19. I will break the pride of your power ver 20. Your strength shall be spent in vaine ver 21. If ye walke contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me I will bring seven times more plagues upon you ver 23. If ye will not be reformed by all these things ver 25. I will bring a sword upon you to avenge upon you the quarrell of my Covenant When you are gathered together within your Cities I will send the pestilence among you and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies ver 27. If ye will not for all this hearken unto me ver 28. Then will I walk contrary unto you in fury ver 29. You shall eate the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters These are words to make the eare of Man tingle and his heart ake Why are all these dreadfull menacings For this If ye will not hearken to me if ye will not be reformed by former sufferings It were happy if each man of us when he comes home would retire into his Closet or presently retire into himself and say Hath the Lord made so many breaches upon these Lands and so few upon my heart Must he bring a Kingdome to absolute ruine before he reach my heart to break the pride of my power wisdome honour and confidence Must I be brought to the extremity of publike evills to the end of the Creature before I will be brought to the end of my wits to meet with Jesus Christ that my eye may see my Teacher We have the story of a dreame which Nebachadnezzar had and the Interpretation which Daniel made of it Dan. 4. Part of the Interpretation is exprest ver 23. They shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times shall passe ever thee till thou know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdome of men I say in our case as Daniel said to the King This dreame be to our enemies and the Interpretation of it to those that hate us Yet I very much feare lest we be driven out of all forme of a Common-wealth into a Wildernesse of Confusion that our nayles will grow longer and sharper like the clawes of birds of prey that our haire will turne into feathers of flight and fury that we shall have our dwelling among beasts not men that seven times more will come upon us to wet us with the displeasure of heaven before we know that the most high God the Lord Jesus hath wisdome and might that his hand disposeth of the Kingdomes of the earth his lips alone utter knowledge and discover truth to Man Doe we not yet groane for the plague of our hearts that they are so long so hard Doe we not cry O the slownesse of our hearts to know the voice of our owne Shepherd and to receive the teachings of the Lord Jesus Shall we now all joyne with an unutterable and irresistable groane to aske one thing of our Saviour even this That we may be ever in thy Temple O Jesus Thy presence makes our soules thy Temple That we may be still beholding thy face and still searching out thine appearances within us to make these the men of our Counsaile Thus much for the first Use which is for Humiliation Use 2 For Information Christ is our onely Master in Christianity There is then no testimony on which we can build our Religion our Beliefe in Divine things save onely that Testimony of that most high Spirit which is God and Christ shining in our Spirits It is one of the names of Christ Revel 1. 5. The faithfull Witnesse It is his Prerogative as to be King of Kings so to be the Witnesse of Witnesses Every Testimony is so far to be believed as it hath him testifying to it and in it who is the faithfull Witnesse It is onely the greatest Light the Light of the World the Spirit of Jesus Christ that can enlighten and informe us in the greatest things which are the things of God The whole world especially the Christian part of it is fill'd with violent and voluminous Disputes concerning this thing What should be the Rule of our Faith how we should distinguish the true Religion from the false There are five Competitours for this Master-ship over our Spirits 1. Reason 2. The Authority of the Church 3. Miracles 4. The Letter of the Scriptures 5. The Spirit We will briefly examine all these each apart by it selfe 1. Master Reason This it selfe needs a Master For it is corrupted and depraved in all Man-kind Where then shall we find right Reason Who shall refine and define it By what light shall we discover by what fire sever the silver from the drosse Reason from the irregularities and corruptions of Reason Who can draw a cleane thing out of an uncleane saith the Scripture And naturall Reason it selfe in its Phylosophie testifies That nothing can bring forth it selfe out of Power or Potentiality into act out of an imperfect state into perfection Saint Paul determines the state of Nature and Reason Rom. 3. 12 13. They are all gone out of the way The path of Reason was their way Their throat is become an open Sepulchre The inward parts of Man are now no more a Temple in which Reason sits in its purity and Power as the Image of God giving forth its Oracles but a Grave in which the dead and rotten carkase only of Reason lies without any true light or life But Reason at first in its height was not could not be a suitable a sure Judge in Spirituall things 1. Reason at best is no suitable Judge in spirituall things There must be a proportion betweene the faculty and the Object to unite them Reason is but a humane light Spirituall things are Divine Reason is a naturall Power Spirituall objects are Supernaturall of another rank and kind Spirituall things