Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	great_a	life_n	2,755	4	4.1264	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14907	Exercitations divine Containing diverse questions and solutions for the right understanding of the Scriptures. Proving the necessitie, majestie, integritie, perspicuitie, and sense thereof. As also shewing the singular prerogatiues wherewith the Lord indued those whom he appointed to bee the pen-men of them. Together with the excellencie and use of divinitie above all humane sciences. All which are cleared out of the Hebrew, and Greeke, the two originall languages in which the Scriptures were first written, by comparing them with the Samaritane, Chaldie, and Syriack copies, and with the Greeke interpretors, and vulgar Latine translation. By Iohn Weemse, of Lathocker in Scotland, preacher of Christs Gospell.	Weemes, John, 1579?-1636.	1632 (1632)	STC 25212; ESTC S119565	155,578	222

for us to love God This proposition againe in Divinity Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soule and with all thy mind Matth. 22. 37. and thy neighbour as thy selfe vers 39. commandeth practise formally Secondly a proposition in Divinity urgeth practise A proposition in Divinity commandeth practise mediately or immediately eyther mediatly or immediately imediatly as God is summum bonum the chiefe good out of this mediate proposition we gather an immediate therefore we are to love him above all things Thirdly these conclusions in Divinity which conclude for practise the propositions out of which they If the conclusions be practicke the propositions must be practicke are drawne must also be for practise and not for contemplation nam nihil agit extra genus suum as they say in the Schooles as we cannot gather grapes of thornes or figgs of thistels Matth. 7. 16. So new wine cannot be the cause why the Apostles spake with divers tongues Act. 2. So we cannot gather conclusions of practise from speculative propositions Fourthly these rules which serve to direct men to practise may be called rules of practise as the Carpenters The word of God is a line and rule of practise line in his hand is a line of practise because it leadeth him to practise So the Word of God is the line by the which wee should walke therefore it is a rule of practise Gal. 6. 6. As many as walke according to this rule peace be unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to worke by rule or line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word is the rule of our working therefore it teacheth us practise But it may be said that contemplation is the end of Object Divinity in heaven to see God face to face therefore is the end of our Divinity here upon earth Contemplation in heaven leadeth us alwayes to practise and they can never be separate for as below here Answ those Sciences which we call inspectrices as the mathematicks physicke and such whose end consisteth not in doing are the parents of morall philosophie and of doing for by these we take up the nature of things the goodnesse and the truth of them and then we begin to esteeme of them and love them when wee know them so that contemplation bringeth forth alwayes practise The glorified Saints in heaven comming nearer to the first cause esteeme more highly of him and therefore they love him more sincerely and returne all praise to him But it may seeme that contemplation is more excellent Object than practise for Mary is preferred unto Martha Mary for her contemplation to Martha for her action When Mary and Martha are compared together they Answ resemble not the contemplative and the active life but the naturall and spirituall life Mary careth for the spirituall life and Martha for the naturall Did not Mary care for practise as well as Martha sate shee not at Christs feete that shee might learne practise that she might wash them with her teares and wipe them with her haire And because practise is joyned alwayes with knowledge therefore the wisedome which is proper to the understanding is ascribed sometimes to the will Iob. 28. 28. to depart from evill is understanding and therefore it is that justice and judgement are joyned together in the Scripture and they are called fooles who doe not according to their knowledge And Salomon saith Eccle. 10. 2. The heart of a wise man is at his right hand because his heart teacheth his hand to put things in practise The end of our Divinity is more in practise than in contemplation therefore these onagri or wilde asses the Heremites who lived without all society of men forget the cheife end wherefore they were set here living rather like beasts than like men and if wee shall take a view of the ecclesiasticall history as out of Theodoret and Zozomen wee shall see how unprofitablie these men have spent their time leaving the congregation of the Saints of God Theodoret writeth of one Macedonius Cap. 13. de historia religiosa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gubba dict us est gubba in the Syriacke tongue is a Ditch he was called gubba because he stoode in a Ditch all his time and he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he eate nothing but Barley pulse See how unprofitablie this man spent his time not giving himselfe to reading of the holy Scriptures for he was altogether ignorant of them for when Flavianus the Bishop sent for him that hee might make him a Minister he was so ignorant of that which the Bishop had done unto him when he ordained him Minister that being required the next Sabbath day to come againe to the Church answered him who came for him that he was affraid to be made Minister the next Sabbath day also and so refused to come see how this holy man spent his life for forty yeares in contemplatin and what great progresse he made in Christian Religion So Theodoret maketh mention of one Styllites who From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pillar stoode under a pillar all his life time and never came into a house So Zozomen in his ecclesiasticall history Lib. 6. 29. writeth of one Pior who going out of his fathers house into a desert vowed solemnely that he should never see any of his kinsmen or friends againe and living fifty yeares there he had a sister who longed to see him before shee dyed the Bishop pitying the poore woman granted leave to Pior to come and visit her and he returning into his countrey standing before the doore called out his sister and shutting his eyes he said unto her behold I am your brother Pior looke upon mee as much as you please but shee entreating him earnestly to come to her house he altogether refusing went backe againe to the Wildernesse and so wee reade in Theodoret of one Adynus who lived ninety yeares in the In Sacra hist lib. 14. 8. Wildernesse and never spake to any man as if he had beene possessed with a dumb Divell this is that holy contemplative life which the Church of Rome commendeth so much but this is pure Religion to visite the fatherlesse and widdow in their necessity Iam. 1. 27. These Heremites living this contemplative life were like Polyphemus having but one eye in his head and looking ever up but never downe The Schoolemen differ but little in this poynt how The opinion of the Schoolemen in this point Divinity teacheth us practise Thomas and his followers say that fides non est recta ratio agendi sed recta ratio sentiendi and therefore Contra gentiles hee compareth faith to hearing rather than to sight but he addeth that practise followeth faith as the fruit of it but Scotus maketh faith to be habitus practicus Yee see how both of them insist in this that Divinity consisteth in

erred in a matter of faith Gal. 2. 14. Object The error was not in the substance but in the circumstance of the fact and where it is sayd Gal. 2. 14. Ans Wherein Peter erred That Peter walked not uprightly according to the Gospel it is to be understood onely of his conversation hee erred here onely in this principle of Christian Religion not walking according to his knowledge but hee erred not in his writing All men are subject to error the Prophets and Apostles Ob. are men therefore subject to error The Prophets and Apostles are considered as members Ans of the Church and so they might erre and they pray The Apostles considered two manner of wayes as other men Lord forgive us our sinnes Secondly they are considered according to their functions and immediate calling and then they were above the Church and could not erre What needed Nathan to be sent to David to attend Quest him continually one Prophet to another Although one Prophet stood not in need of another Answ yet he who was both a King and a Prophet had neede of a Prophet to admonish him for Kings stand in slippery places and have neede of others to advertise them The Prophets as they were Prophets could not erre therefore that collection of the Iewes is most impious they say that David wished to the sonnes of Ioab foure things 2 Sam. 3. 29. First that some of them might dye by the sword Secondly that some of them might dye of the bloody flixe Thirdly that some of them might leane upon a staffe And fourthly that some of them might begge their bread And so they say it befell Davids posterity for his sinfull wish One of them leaned upon a staffe Asa was goutish One of his posterity was killed by the sword as Iosias One of them dyed of the flixe as Rehoboam And one of them beg'd his bread as Iehojachim But this collection is most impious for David spake not here by a private spirit of revenge but as a Prophet of God and therefore when they assigne these to be the causes why these judgements befell Davids posterity they assigne that for a cause which was not a cause The fourth prerogative they were holy men Holinesse Prerogat 4 distinguished them from those Prophets which were profane and unsanctified who had the gift of The pen-men of the holy Ghost were holy men illumination but not of sanctification the Lord made choyse of none such to be his secretaries who were not sanctified The Lords Prophet is called vir spiritus the man of the Spirit Hos 9. 7. because he is ruled and guided by the holy Spirit that he become not profaine If the very women who spun the curtaines to the Tabernacle were wise hearted Exod. 35. 25. Much more will the Lord have those who are to build his house wise and holy men Those who translated the Bible into Greeke yee shall see how often they changed their faith and were turne-coates Aquila of a Christian he became a Iew. Symmachus was first a Samaritane and then he became halfe Iew halfe Christian Then Theodoton first he was a fllower of Tatianus the hereticke and then he became a Marcionite and thirdly he became a Iew. But the Prophets of God after they were called continued holy men and never fell backe againe God will have no man but holy men to be his secretaries See more of Salomon in the Politiks Luk. 1. 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets Therefore Salomon being a Prophet and one of Gods secretaries behoved to be a holy man and being holy he could not be a reprobate hence he is called Iedidiah The beloved of God 2. Sam. 12. 25. and whom God loveth he loveth to the end The holy men of God wrote as they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspired by God the Spirit inlightned them and directed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them when they wrote they were inspired three Illuminati antecedenter per concomitantiā subsequenter manner of wayes first antecedenter Secondly per concomitantiam and thirdly subsequenter First they were illuminate antecedenter when the Lord revealed things to come to his Prophets and made them to write his prophesies then their tongue was the pen of a swift writer Psal 45. 1. That is he not onely indited these prophesies unto them but also ruled them so and guided them in writing even as a master guideth the hand of a young child when he is learning to write Secondly he inspired them in writing the Histories and Actes after another manner per concomitantiam for that which was done already hee assisted them so in writing it downe that they were able to discerne the relations which they had from others to be true as Luke knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately the truth of these things which How Luke differed frō Tertius and Baruch he had from those who had heard and seene Christ and he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perfect declaration of them There was a great difference betwixt him and Tertius who was Pauls Scribe and wrote out his Epistles Rom. 16. 22. or betwixt him and Baruch who was Ieremies Scribe Ier. 38. they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the secretaries of the holy Ghost but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discribebant ab alio they wrote onely these things which Ieremiah and Paul indited to them neyther was sanctification required in them as they were their Scribes But the Evangelists who saw not Christ yet they were the Secretaries of the holy Ghost and holy men as they were his Secretaries and directed by him to write Thirdly he assisted them in writing subsequentèr the holy Ghost revealed things to the Prophets long before but when they were to write these things the spirit of the Lord brought the same things to their memorie againe and indited these things unto them which they had seene before in vision Ier. 36. 2. Take thee a roule and write therein all the words that I have spoken to thee against Israel and against Iuda and against all the Nations from the day that I spake to thee even from the dayes of Iosias unto this day So Ioh. 14. 26. the comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all thing and bring all things to your memory which I have told you These Secretaries of the holy Ghost when they wrote habebant libertatam exercitij sed non specificationis Libertas exercitij specificationis as they say in the Schooles they were not like Blockes or Stones but the Lord inclined their wills freely to write which putteth a difference betwixt them and A difference betwixt the Prophets of God and the Sybiles or Prophets of the devill the Sybils and other Prophets of the Divell who were blasted and distracted in their wits when they prophesied When Elisha sent one of the children of the Prophets to annoynt Iehu one