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
A73378	An exposition of the lawes of Moses Viz. Morall. Ceremoniall. Iudiciall. The second volume. Containing an explanation of diverse questions and positions for the right understanding thereof. Wherein also are opened divers ancient rites & customes of the Iewes, and also of the Gentiles, as they haue relation to the Iewish. Together with an explication of sundry difficult texts of Scripture, which depend upon, or belong unto every one of the Commandements, as also upon the ceremoniall and iudiciall lawes. Which texts are set downe in the tables before each particular booke. All which are cleered out of the originall languages, the Hebrew and Greeke, and out of the distinctions of the schoolemen and cases of the casuists. / By Iohn Weemse, of Lathocker in Scotland, preacher of Gods Word.; Works. v. 3	Weemes, John, 1579?-1636.	1632 (1632)	STC 25207.5; ESTC S112662	524,931	1,326

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 let 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 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gubba dictus est Cap. 13. de historia religiosa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pillar So Theodoret maketh mention of one Styllites who 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 In Sacra hist lib. 14. 8. who lived ninety yeares in the 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 opinion of the Schoolemen in this point The Schoolemen differ but little in this poynt how 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 practise The end of the Sadduces and Pharises Divinity The Lord Num. 15.38.39 commanded the Israelites to make fringes upon the borders of their garments that they might remember the Commandements of the Lord and keepe them the Sadduces gave themselves onely to looke upon the fringes and if they had onely remembred the Law they thought then they had discharged their duties but the end of the Pharises was to remember their owne traditions The end of the Monks and Iesuites Divinity So the end of the Monkes Divinity now is onely idle contemplation with the Sadduces and the end of the Iesuites Divinity now is onely to practise mischeefe and many Christians when they reade the Scriptures now they reade them not for practise but for to passe the time with they are like little children who seeke Nuts to play but not to breake them and eate the kernels The conclusion of this is Iam. 1.22 Conclusi Be yee doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your selves EXERCITAT IIII. Of Adams knowledge before his fall Gen. 2.19 Whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name of it FIrst consider in Adams knowledge the manner how he got this knowledge and secondly the measure of his knowledge His knowledge was inbred knowledge and not acquired for as soone as he did behold the creatures Of the manner how Adam got his knowledge never having seene them before he gave them all names according to their nature This knowledge being inbred it could not be acquired also nam duplex ejusdem scientiae in vno subjecto non datur causa there cannot be two causes given of one the selfe same knowledge in one subject although one and the selfe same knowledge cannot be said both to be acquired and inbred Adams inbred knowledge and our acquired knowledge are not diverse sorts of knowledge yet Adam might have had experimentall knowledge afterward of his inbred knowledge His inbred knowledge and our acquired knowledge are not divers sorts of knowledge for as the sight restored to the blind although it was miraculous yet when he saw it was one sort of sight with our sight so these inbred habites and acquired habites are but one sort of habits but these inbred habits in Adam and infused habits were more excellent than acquired habits for these things which God doth are such that nature cannot produce the like or so perfect as that wine which Christ made miraculously at the marriage of Cana in Galilee Things done miraculously are more excellent than nature can produce them Iob. 2. was more excellent wine than other naturall wine so when Christ cured the blind their sight was more perfect than our naturall sight so when he made the lame to goe Act. 3.16 So the habites of inbred knowledge in Adam were more perfect than any other sinfull man could ever attaine unto after him Of the measure of Adams knowledge The creatures are lesse than the knowledge of God they were equall with the knowledge of Adam before his fall but they exceed our knowledge now When the eye looketh upon the white colour Simile it scattereth the sight and the white colour exceedeth it but when it looketh upon the greene colour exaequat visum and it is a proportionable object for the eye but when it looketh upon a taunie colour it is lesse than the sight So the creatures are lesse than Gods sight they were equall with Adams sight before his fall like the greene colour and they exceed our sight since the fall as the white colour doth exceede

the doctrine it selfe they never erred Peter in the transfiguration knew not what hee sayd Luk. 9.33 David was minded to build an house to God he asked of Nathan if he should doe so 1 Chro. 17.2 Nathan sayd to him doe what is in thine heart So when Eliab stood before Samuel 1 Sam. 16.6 Samuel sayd surely the Lords annointed i● before me So the Disciples erred in their counsell which they gave to Paul forbidding him to goe up to Ierusalem Act. 21.4 But the spirit of God taught the contrary by Agabus vers 17. David Psal 116. sayd in his hast that all men are lyars he meant that Samuel the man of God had made a lye to him because hee thought the promise too long differred in getting of the kingdome So when he wrote a letter to Ioab with vriah in this he was not Gods secretary but the Divels But as they were the secretaries of God and spake by divine inspiration they could not erre But it may seeme Object that all which they wrote in holy Scriptures was not done by divine inspiration for Paul wrote that he would come to Spaine Rom. 15.24 and yet he never came to Spaine We must distinguish betweene their purposes externall and their doctrine Answ they might erre in these externall purposes and resolutions but all which they wrote of Christ and matters of salvation was yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 He wrote that he was purposed to come to Spaine and so he was but he was let that he could not come But Paul repented that he wrote the Epistle to the Corinthians to grieve them Object 2 Cor. 7.8 If this was written by the inspiration of the holy Ghost why did he repent of it Paul wrote this Epistle to humble them Answ and when he saw them excessively sorrowfull that was the thing that greeved him but it greeved him not simply that he wrote to them to humble them When a Chyrurgian commeth to cure a wounded man Simile he putteth the poore patient to great paine and maketh him to cry out that grieveth him but it greeveth him not when he cureth him So it repented not Paul that he had written to the Corinthians but it repented him to see them so swallowed up with greefe Object But if the Scriptures be Divinely inspired how say they Iud. 16.17 there were about three thousand upon the roofe of the house So Act. 2.40 and that day there were added to the Church about three thousand soules Is not the number of all things certainely knowne to God Answ The Scriptures set downe the number that way because it is little matter whether we know the number or not And secondly the Lord speaketh to us this way in the Scripture after the manner of men Object Peter erred in a matter of faith Gal. 2.14 Ans Wherein Peter erred The error was not in the substance but in the circumstance of the fact and where it is sayd Gal. 2.14 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 Ob. All men are subject to error the Prophets and Apostles are men therefore subject to error Ans The Prophets and Apostles are considered as members of the Church The Apostles considered two manner of wayes and so they might erre and they pray 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 Quest What needed Nathan to be sent to David to attend him continually one Prophet to another Answ Although one Prophet stood not in need of another 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 Prorogative 4 The fourth prerogative they were holy men Holinesse distinguished them from those Prophets which were profane and unsanctified who had the gift of illumination but not of sanctification The pen-men of the holy Ghost were holy men 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 See more of Salomon in the Politiks God will have no man but holy men to be his secretaries 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 manner of wayes Illuminati antecedenter per concomitantiā subsequenter 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