Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	discipline_n	doctrine_n	4,176	5	6.2312	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64750	A sermon preached at the publiquf [sic] fast, March the eight in the afternoon, at St. Maries Oxford, before the members of the Honourable House of Commons there assembled by Henry Vaughan ... ; and printed by their order.	Vaughan, Henry, 1617 or 18-1661.	1644 (1644)	Wing V128; ESTC R233020	26,918	34

likewise Iustice and Righteousnesse to levell and direct these meanes to a due end The prudent man is alwayes the good man in Aristotle For how is it possible that a Soule troubled and clouded with the fumes and mists of vicious affections can discover ought aright through that even glasse of corrupt passion which presenteth things unto us with the same Obliquities and Deformities as it selfe is affected with how can it fixe it selfe on the steady consideration of those infinite accidents consequences conjectures oppositions those intricacies and perplexities those small particularities and circumstances that occurre in publique affaires Saint Paul Rom. 1. speaking of the Gentiles who withheld the Truth i. e. the light of nature and conscience in unrighteousnesse saith v. 21. That they became vaine in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened Thus doth vice pervert and deprave the habit of Practick-Principles in us yea and in a sort destroyeth even Rationall Nature it selfe which as the Schoole-men rightly doth illuminate that Habit and informeth us in the test Expedients for the 〈◊〉 age of Warre the recovery of Peace for the regulating and preserving of humane societies The Lacedemonian Magistrates rejected wholsome advice because it proceeded from a loose Liver It cannot be denyed indeed but an impious man may at sometimes produce good Counsell but it is likely to a perverse unjust end Who is it but admireth the subtilty of Achitophel but it was for the deposing of a good King or the cunning of leroboam to keep the People from going to lerusalem to worship but it was to make the breach more wide and desperate and to establish his usurped Throne There is a Prudence of Serpents which as Basill observeth preserve and benefit themselves but themselves onely such as is to be seene in those who were about Stratocles and Demiclides who invite one another to State-Employments as to a golden Harvest where you shall reape that mans honours the second's Mannours and the thirds great Office The wise mans eyes are in his head saith the Preacher c. 2. 14. where are the fooles then saith Nyssen are they in his heeles yes or as Solomon in the ends of the earth Prov. 17. 24. to regard the inlargement of his owne worldly profits pleasures and terrene happinesse whereas the wise man casteth one Eye upon the Helme and lifteth the other to the Starre in Heaven by which he steereth his course in the midst of the Billowes There is besides the Municipall Law and Statutes a Law and Testimony whereby Men should direct their Determinations For we cannot pronounce a right judgement of actions and affaires but by considering their dependance and relation with the prime Cause and rule of all our 〈◊〉 namely the Will of God Whatsoever recedeth from that rule is unjust what is unjust is founded not upon equity but violence and because such Constitutions and Mandates are not imposed on Men without Tyranny they are never happily executed Have we then a recourse to the Law and will of God we shall not need those unnatuall Instruments of the Machiavellians Perjury Lying Deceit Dissimulation Vnjustice and the like It was in the Porch of the Temple that those two maine Pillars of a State lachin and Boaz Stability and Strength were erected The Jewes deliver that their supreme Court of Iudicature was in the South part of the Temple and that their Kings Palace joyned with it For Religion must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the foundation of Law-giving and ought to be saith 〈◊〉 the first of publique cares The Christian Emperours therefore were wont to advise with the Governours of the Church that nothing might be done contrary to the precepts of Religion or to the prudence of Gods Church as the Romans like wise with their Foeciales The Scepter of Minos in Homer is but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Plato the Doctrine and Discipline of God Hence was it that the Ancients cloathed God and Prudence with the same Armour now the Armour of God in Is. 59. is the Helmet of Salvation and the Breast-plate of righteousnesse When a Nation manageth its affaires by the Dictates of private spirits and desires contrary to the knowne rules of Piety Vertue and Obedience it becommeth like the lsraelites 〈◊〉 Nation voyd of Councell neither is there any understanding in them Deut. 32. 28. 〈◊〉 their meek Leader Characters them Then through the wrath of the Lord of 〈◊〉 is the Land darkened and the people shall be as the fuell of the fire no man shall spare his brother Is. 9. 19. darkened with clouds of Iealousies and vaine feares which their owne guilt shall suggest unto them and will streight gush into a storme And when their pathes are made darke and slippery enough they proceed like the Heathen of old in performance of their ridiculous rites to Consus the God of Councells Equos Asinos Coronare or like blinded Samson to lay hold on the goodly Pillars them of Church or State and in stead of strengthening and confirming to overthrow the whole House But sometimes that they may the more certainly arrive at their deserved perdition the Devill he hangeth forth a light such a one as I have seen in a Lampe burning and fed with a sophisticated and strangely tempered Oyle which presented the Beholders with uncouth Serpents Beasts Antick shapes and new-fangled Formes or like him in the Gospell they beginne to see men walking like Trees i. e. with the head which beareth analogie with the root in the Tree downewards the King below the People S. Ambrose evinceth the necessary conjunction of civill Prudence and Righteousnesse from what is delivered of Solomon That the wisdome of God was in him to doe judgement 1. King 3. 28. no gift from God descendeth upon an impious soule The rayes of the Sunne though they kindle starres and enlighten the ayre yet require some preexistent light in those Starres and in that ayre and ere the beame of Wisedome be shot into men from the Father of Lights there is necessary in them a Light even that of good works and piety to shine before men Indeed true righteousnesse hath much of that quality of light with it that it must needs discover its glory to others benefit it cannot be dammed up and smothered it is that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} another mans good yea and more anothers then its owner and therefore aptly resembled ty Oyle which doth the outward parts of the party anointed more good then the inward And though it hath this diffusive imparting nature with it yet hath it this common too with every other more particular vertue that it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} every mans owne possession and claimeth a Seate in each Soule And so I come unto the Subject your righteousnesse No quality can perfect or