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
A49471	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, March 18, 1665/6 by ... B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1666 (1666)	Wing L349; ESTC R6221	15,643	38

work not of their Duties that is not to remit their Sins but to make them Sinners Now what was likely to be the effect of all this but that which happened Wars and Combustions over the whole Empire Though that Pope did not long out live that Feite of his yet his Successors and their Parasites have so ply'd the Cause ever since that time some directly some indirectly that the fire is not yet extinguished Now if the Pope met with some Princes that would not endure his Ranging thus in their Dominions but thought it high time to quit his Miter to secure their Crowns he may thank himself for it They may call it a Schism if they please but it is a Schism without a Sin That word will hurt none so much as the Causers and Authors of it For it is but reasonable and just That if the Pope would not know his business that Princes should know theirs This is my First Instance of the Troubles that by this means brake into the whole Church VVe need not go far from home for another VVe were in a sad case not long since in this Kingdom by a Civil VVar. I meddle not with the fault let that sleep under the Act of Oblivion VVe may I trust without offence enquire into the cause of it VVhat were they doing that gave us that disquiet Look upon the Standard set up for the VVar I mean the most Execrable GOVENANT Quomodo legis how read you there was it not medling with business was none of their own They Covenanted first to extirpate the Government of the Church established by Law That Law with hands lifted up to Heaven they swore they would abolish The Legislative Power we know in whom it is to make or mend Laws it was none of their business In this they were certainly too bold with the Kings Scepter At the next turn they take hold of his Sword too and engage themselves to a mutual Defence against all Opposition This also was none of their business For though a Self-defence may be allow'd as natural to all it is against private not publique Opposition and then too as Divines generally resolve Cum moder amine inculpatae Tutelae never to the hurt of others that is Every man may defend himself clypeo but not every one gladio The Sword is the Kings and He that takes it from any hand but His where God hath plac'd it shall perish with the Sword In this the Covenanters as ill as they like Bishops would be in the Apostles phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.15 the worst sort of Bishops that is medlers in business was none of their own The Worshippers of the Covenant have therefore been well dealt with as the worshippers of the Golden Calf were by Moses Exod. 32.20 As he made them drink that so have they been made to eat this though some of them be found of so foolishly distempered stomacks that they chuse rather to part with that which is their own than renounce a Business was none of their own But the Covenant is past and let it go I wish for quiet sake we may never hear of the like again This was transient But there still remains a permanent and habitual Disturbance of our Peace in the multitude and swarms of SECTS and Factions in Religion to which it is naturally and inseparably inherent An incurable mischief like the Leprosie on the walls that could not be cleansed but by pulling down the House From these we have felt already but too much and have cause yet to fear more But can we charge them with doing a business is none of their own Can any thing be more properly our own business than the care of our souls and to serve God in the b●st manner that our understandings and Consciences shall direct us They are mistaken that think the Charge lies upon this issue what every man may do for himself and his own salvation He may without question do very much for he may keeep all Gods Commandments if he can and when he cannot he may be truly contrite and penitent for breaking them and then he may assuredly believe his sins shall be forgiven him by the merits and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ And again He may serve and worship God with as much fervency and devotion as he can and will he may abound in Charity Meekness Humility Patience and Temperance and all other Christian vertues And so long as ye thus follow that which is good saith S. Peter who will harm you 1 Pet. 3.13 And I may say too who can hinder you in all this but if he makes himself a party in a Sect if there be assembling together in companies gather Congregations incorporate in a Body module Churches give Laws of Doctrine and Worship set up Teachers and Leaders of their own to all this they have as little Right as they have need A man may go far ye see in Religion without troubling any and if then they fall into some Error or Misbelief in Religion they ought not to be severely handled but when they betake themselves to a Sect that alters the case it will then be compassion mistaken A Locust alone is no such perilous beast to be fear'd or regarded by any but when they come in shoals and swarms and cover the face of the earth they are a plague to the Countrey where they light So to look upon a Sectary single who out of simplicity and good meaning follows his Conscience our hearts should be every whit as tender for them as their Consciences are But if we look upon them in Company they are as ill and dangerous as the company they are found in and the danger of all popular Meetings and Associations to a State makes it the proper business of a King and his Ministers to look to it and to provide against it wherein the care hath been taken deserves a just commendation And yet when I assert and refer this business to the KING I look to be call'd to an account for that For they take the boldness by way of recrimination to turn the Text upon the King himself That His Power is Civil and Matters of the Church and Religion are Ecclesiastial and so none of his business This is I confess too weighty a matter to be here thrust into the corner of a Sermon yet it will be necessary to say so much as may somewhat lay that loud clamour against it For the Papists and Presbyterians both how ill soever they may agree in other matters hunt in couples against the Kings Power and SUPREMACY But as we denie not all to others in their places so we claim not all for the King If I shall but only now set out His Part in matters of the Church it will appear sufficiently that he is Rectus in Curia stands right in the Text and takes not upon him business which is not his own We acknowledge the Civil and

that is destructive to it Now if in all this the King moves not out of his own civil Sphere To return to our Sectaries who put us upon this digression they still remain as we left them guilty of doing much that is none of their own business What then is to be done with them According to a late Statute a Mittimus I think might be made to send them to prison but the Apostle here deals more kindly with them and sends them only to School to study better which is my Fourth and last Point IV. THat ye study to do your own business I will take no more out of the word Study then what any one understands to be in it A serious weighing and considering of the matter and there is need of it The first thing the Student is to do before he takes in hand any matter of importance is to set down and consider whether it be his own business or no what Title he can make to it It is utterly a fault amongst us to think that no part of our business to consider whether it be our business or no. If a qualm comes over the stomack that we begin to grow Government-sick or that the Ceremonies and Superstitions of the Church offend us presently without further dispute what ever comes of it it is resolved we will have a better Government and a more pure and reformed Church That is commonly concluded before this be disputed No good Student will do so conclude without premises We must see whether it be our own business first how we can derive a Title to it We know that Government and Religion come both originally from God to which none can have Right but they to whom God hath set over and entrusted the Care and Charge of either Our part is to see by what mean Conveyance it comes from them to us If we have nothing to shew that either of them have been particularly committed to us we may safely and certainly conclude it is none of our business Every Student must observe a good method in his study whereof one Rule is To proceed à manifestis ad obscuriora Let him begin at that which is without question his own business Hath he done all that belongs to his proper place and Function which is certainly his own Or hath he a Family at home to govern that no doubt is his too Are his Wife and Children and Servants well ordered all as they should be S. Paul gives a charge to Timothy not to set a Bishop over the Church who hath not governed his own Family well Though some have not a Family without yet every one hath a Family within and a large one too To rule his passions and inordinate desires only asks a world of work and they will find it so when ever they set themselves upon it What a preposterous method and course is it to hunt eagerly after Liberty from some imaginary Pressure in Government or some poor Ceremony in the Church while in the mean time we are true slaves to some base vile lust within us Here we should begin to set our selves at liberty from our selves And this the method of Charity requires as well as the method of Art Charity begins always at home at our own business Tantumne ab re tua otii est tibi was well said in the Comedy Aliena ut Cures True Charity will find no leisure for other's work till her own be done If this method were carefully observ'd the world would be a great deal quieter than it is Study will be therefore needful in this case because otherwise unconsidering men are apt to be carried away with the fair shew of Zeal and Religion in reforming others they take it for a wrong from any that think not so of it But by considering well they will find they are disappointed of that hope for whatsoever sets them on work it cannot be true Religion that is not contrary to it self All Students know that One truth is not repugnant to another nor one vertue to another Religion doth not make men fools to employ themselves in that whereof there comes no good All we do in other mens business runs wast S. Paul 2 Thes 3.11 calls it idleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 working not at all but are busie-bodies busie and yet not work at all He says the same of his Widows of Pleasure 1 Tim. 5.3 That they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle and busie-bodies both He thinks that not worthy to be call'd business which is not our own And yet Secondly There is a worse matter in it than idleness It charges our account more than needs and there is no Wisdom in that for when the Conscience brings us in more Work than either God or Man particularly requires though it be not our own of Duty here it will be our own in Account hereafter For the conscience of doing it makes it ours howsoever and so guilty both of it and all the mischief that comes by it 'T is against Justice That doth suum cuique tribuere Justice lets every man enjoy his own He that takes upon him another mans business because he can do it better for that 's the great pretence to do that which is best may as well take another mans Purse because he will spend the money better I think we will hardly allow of that Justice 'T is against Hope that Christian hope which supports us in all our Sufferings and Afflictions Whereof when S. Peter 1 Ep. 4. c. had for the consolation of his Countrey-men scattered abroad pour'd out a plentiful measure v 13 14. Rejoice in as much ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be reveal'd ye may be glad also with exceeding joy Ver. 14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you But presently in the very next words ver 15. he puts in an exception to busie-bodies they have no part or share in that consolation Let none of you suffer as a Murtherer or a Thi●f or a Busie-body They have as little right to the comfort in suffering as they had to the business for which they suffer Lastly As it disappoints them of the hope of that Mercy from God so it casts them into the snare of the Devil It was safe and wise Counsel the Apostle gives Eph. 4.27 Not to give place to the Devil He whose busie thoughts carries him abroad to pry into and meddle in others business gives place to the Devil in the mean time to enter in ransack and disorder all at home where there is none to resist him There is no better fence against the Devil than this si invenerit occupatos if he finds us diligently employ'd at home in our own business If for all this the medling Reformers of others would be thought the men of Religion and of the first rate too Let them know That it is of such a Religion as hath neither Prudence in it nor Charity nor Justice nor Hope nor Safety And when he hath weigh'd all these mischiefs that follow the breaking this Rule Let him in the next place consider the benefit that comes by keeping it At that I began and with that I will conclude This lesson was set us of purpose by the Apostle to second and enforce the other of Peace and Quiet The best way to be quiet with others is to be busie with our selves It is the natural and genuine effect of it All discord and dissention must be between two either persons or parties and that which commonly kindles the fire is envy or some supposed injury now he that intends his own business only can give no occasion to others of either envy or complaint and so in recompence of keeping to his own business he shall quietly sit under his own Vine and under his own Fig tree he shall have own for own Lastly Besides this outward quiet with others it will produce another within us the quiet and tranquillity of the Conscience without which outward peace may prove to some but a quiet passage here to eternal misery hereafter But this makes it a thorough quiet both sides alike within and without for it layes those busie unsatisfied thoughts within us which otherwise give● trouble both to our selves and others That when we see not or think we see not all things so well carried in the Church and Government as we could wish yet having gone as far to mend it as the line of our own business will reach and the farthest end of that is having peaceably mov'd for it and heartily pray'd for it we may with a safe and quiet Conscience leave the rest to God and those to whom he hath committed that Care and Charge whose proper business it is And as many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy from the God of Peace and Mercy To whom be all honour glory and praise for ever Amen FINIS