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	doctrine_n	worship_n	3,910	5	7.2192	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26195	The arraignment of rebellion, or, The irresistibility of sovereign powers vindicated and maintain'd in a reply to a letter / by John Aucher ...	Aucher, John, 1619-1701.	1684 (1684)	Wing A4191; ESTC R14611	67,159	122

of our worship Weakness will be of no force against Custome universal When the decency of our Ceremonies is so plainly visible to all the innocency of them so fully vindicated the absolute indifferency of them in themselves so loudly profess'd and acknowledged by the Church Whereby all fear of Superstition as they call it or placing a Holiness in them is quite taken away He that still quarrels at our worship does not quarrel at it but at the Church shews himself contentious and must not by so doing acquit himself in the least from the observation of it Much less when all these exceptions against Doctrines and Worship do not own their original from Ignorance and Weakness which might colour for an excuse but professedly from a greater Knowledge and stronger estate in Christanity For upon that account it is that they are rejected now and laid aside and an Extraordinary warrant and an extraordinary spirit brought up in the stead of them And as to the building and maintaining of Babel which you object I shall onely ask whether setting men loose from all Laws and Religion be not a fairer groundwork for Babel i. e. Confusion than by drawing men into a Communion with one mind and with one mouth to glorify the God of our Fathers The extraordinary spirit in Christ was to gather together into one as many as were scatter'd abroad The extraordinary spirit in the time of the Apostles had no other end but this in it To plant a Church to prescribe Laws and to regulate Communions And therefore was it self subject to the laws it had prescribed The spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets How extraordinary then or extravagant rather shall we call this spirit of yours from the spirit of Christ and his Apostles whose work it is onely to dissolve and to destroy Communions to set every man by himself to profess a spirit of Independency or unsubjection to the spirit of the Prophets to cry down laws and all prescribed worship not because they are bad but because they are laws because they are prescribed And upon that one head viz. The obliging men to some certain measures of Doctrine and Worship fathering as you do all the ignorance and formality that is found in the Christian world Whereto therefore S. Paul in his Charge to men that they teach no other Doctrine And so in his ordering the Christian men of Corinth to be bareheaded in their Worship c. For what is this but obliging men to some certain measures of Doctrine and Worship must be thought in the first place and most fouly accessary That some Churches have indeed taken advantage from hence to dogmatize teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men afterwards instilling them into their very Worship will no more take away the power of the Church in laying this obligation and the necessary good which does generally arise from it than Civil Government because some Fathers or some Sovereign Rulers do enact unjust and inconvenient laws we should presently disclaim all Sonship and subjection and revenge this miscarriage of theirs upon all of the same rank and dominion how guiltless and innocent soever By declaiming against Government reviling of Order setting it up as the mark for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even naming it Confusion Which yet both by God and Man it is especially and expresly designed against Without a Corporation and embodying together in the State we have no security of our lives And without a Communion and consent in the Church without a confessed obligation to some certain measures of Doctrines and Worship we can have no hope that Religion will be long-liv'd among us When this Obligation the Staff of Bands is once broken The Church and Religion which yet had lasted for some time without the Staff of Beauty as we may observe in the eleventh Chapter of Zachary streight falls to the ground What other can me expect here where the onely Prop lent to sustain it is instead of a staff a reed the Old Testament spirit which eo nomine as St. Paul argues against it by name will presently expire Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away And none sooner than this particular spirit wherein you instance the spirit of Jael Which of all appearances in the Old Testament puts the fairest for Babel and enclines most in the way you urge it to ruine and confusion as being utterly destructive to all society and commerce to all manner of agreement and accord in Civil or Sacred employments For that spirit being supposable onely since we are so loudly declared already Sisera's and Canaanites I demand with what manner of trust can we rely upon your promises and invitations upon your acts and articles When we are charmed by these into sleep and security the spirit of Jael comes upon you and the nail is driven into our temples And if this be enough to supersede the Old spirit from being of force among us I shall need add but little to what I have already said to justify the New from ever countenancing or giving encouragement to such actions For you cannot but see and acknowledge that the spirit of Christ in the Gospel has reveal'd to us Precepts quite contrary to any such practice We have an Administration there that does wholly sentense and condemn this kind of doing A spirit that is absolutely opposed to any such spirit And if we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other doctrine the Scripture has said it let him be accursed And then consider I beseech you that place of St. Paul Let us doe evil that good may come whose Damnation is just And if for the abounding of God's Grace we are not to continue in sin which St. Paul startles at and casts from him you may remember with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid when it was falsely father'd upon him and his Gospel then certainly no New Testament spirit no Charity and Love to God for that was the supposition purely Our love to God and the greater manifestation of his Grace That Grace may abound nothing of selfishness or particular Interest but as it is in you at the best for the propagation of the Gospel and pulling down of Antichrist Suppose it true and real I say can justify you in the commitment or continuance of the least sin whatsoever But is give me leave to assure you the most killing blasphemy that can be darted against God and the foulest Opprobium and reproach that can be spit upon the Gospel If it be still urg'd That though to continue in sin were indeed damnable upon any terms yet that where such a spirit or principle leads us on to the work there can be no continuance in sin what ways and steps soever we tread in for the accomplishing of it Why then this it must be considered does quite enervate St. Paul's supposition who supposes us led by such a gracious spirit mov'd