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	government_n	worship_n	3,428	5	7.3798	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85486	The right vvay: or A direction for obtaining good successe in a weighty enterprise. Set out in a sermon preached on the 12th of September, 1648. before the Lords on a day of humiliation for a blessing on a treaty between His Majesties and the Parliaments commissioners. / By W. Gouge.	Gouge, William, 1578-1653.	1648 (1648)	Wing G1394; Thomason E463_1; ESTC R202327	28,997	43

many oppositions made against him he accomplished That which is here spoken of in my Text was done by the second of those Patriots who was a pious Priest and a prudent Governour That he came to Jerusalem The Context Esdras restituit legem Aug. de Mir. S. S. l. 2. c. 33. to reform Religion and to settle the true worship of God and a good government in the Church is evident by this testimony given unto him Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to doe it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgements chap. 7. 10. So much is also evident by that charge which Artaxerxes King of Persia in his letters patents thus gave unto him Thou art sent to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his councellers have freely offered unto the God of Israel c. chap. 7. 14 15 23. The end which he aimed at being a very weighty and worthy end he prudently useth the best means that he could finde warranted in Gods Word for good successe in his under aking thereabout That means being here set down in my Text I passe by all bie passages and directly come to my Text. The Summe of it is The Summe of the Text. A Direction for obtaining good success in a weighty enterprise I suppose that this generall Summe doth sufficiently demonstrate how seasonable this Text is for our present occasion which is to crave a blessing of God upon the Treaty to be had betwixt his Majesties and our Parliaments Commissioners The first particle in my Text The meaning of the words translated then is in the Hebrew a copulative conjunction Vau and. It knitteth together the care that Ezra had in gathering together such persons as were needfull for him and might be usefull and helpfull unto him verse 18 19 20. and the means which by Gods Word was warranted for procuring a blessing upon their endeavours Humane helps and divine blessing must go together Thus he joyneth humane helps and divine assistance together He doth this and that To omit humane warranted helps is to tempt God as the devil would have Christ done when he bid him cast himself down from the pinacle of the Temple there being ordinary means whereby he might safely descend Mat. 4. 5 6. To trust to humane helps without God is to neglect God and to presume as Asa did 2 Chron. 16. 12. In his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians Thereby he brought Gods wrath upon himself The intendment of the copulative particle in this place is well expressed by this conjunction of time Then For he gathered them together that should help him and then sought a blessing of God When he saw it meet that a Fast should be kept Governours must proclaim Fasts then he proclaimed it I proclaimed saith he Ezra who did this was appointed by the King of Persia under whose jurisdiction all the Jews then were to be a Governour For the King appointed him to set other Magistrates over the people chap. 7. 25. which sheweth that he had authority over them At least he was under the King the chief Governour of these Jews that went along with him This therefore which here he doth is an authoritative act He doth it as a Governour Governours use to make proclamations To proclaim implieth two things 1. To give publike notice and warning of a thing to be done This useth to be done openly by an Herald or publike Crier The * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hebrew word implieth that it was done by voice 2. To lay a charge upon those to whom that notice is given to observe the same Thus the solemn feasts of the law at their appointed times were proclaimed Levit. 23. 4. Thus Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast 2 Chron. 20. and the King and people of Nineveh Jon. 3. 5 7. Herein wicked Jezabel did impiously imitate a pious practice 1 King 21. 9. That which was here proclaimed was a fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A religious fast is a forbearing of bodily refreshments to make one fitter for pious duties A fast is here synecdochically put for praier also Fasting and praier must go together Thus much is evident by this phrase added in this direction To seek of God a right way and by joyning together these two verse 23. We fasted and besought our God for this Oft are these two fasting and praier joyned together as Nehem. 1. 4. Daniel 9. 3. Luke 2. 37. Mat. 17. 21. Act. 13. 3. 14. 23. 1 Cor. 7. 5. This word fast is oft used synecdochically for praier also as 2 Chron. 20. 3. Jer. 36. 9. Jonah 3. 6. A fast simply and singly considered in and by it self is but such a bodily exercise as profiteth little 1 Tim. 4. 8. For as meat commendeth us not to God 1 Cor. 8. 8. so nor fasting But fasting joyned with praier is of singular use it being rightly and duly used and that in three especiall respects 1. Fasting a help to praier It 's a means of quickning a dull spirit and rousing up a drousie body In jejuniis c. quam plurimum adjuvatur oratio Aug Probae Ep. 121. Ye know that eating and drinking use to send vapours into the head which make a man drousie in body and heavy in spirit Now fasting preventeth these impediments and thereupon putteth a kinde of life into a man and maketh him to pour out his spirit in praier the more ardently 2. It enableth a man to continue longer in his devotion A man after eating and drinking cannot so long hold out in duties of piety as he that fasteth Besides that time which useth to be spent in eating drinking and other refreshments and delights is by fasting gained for praier and other sacred duties Well observe the most ardent and long continued supplications in Scripture and you shall finde them supported by fasting 3. Fasting is a visible testification of our ardent praier Iejunium est adjuterium ●rationis c. Nam oratio illa est fortis quae fit in spiritu humili c. Chrysost Hom 15 in Mat. 6. and of our earnest desire to obtain that which we pray for in that by our voluntary abstaining from our bodily food and other delights of the body we shew that we prefer the thing that we pray for before them Yea fasting is not only a testification if our humiliation but it is a means to humble the soul the more for that is the use of outward rites both to testifie the inward disposition of the soul and also to help it on the more The place where this religious duty was performed is first indefinitely set down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under this relative there It hath reference to ver 15. where mention is made of Ezras gathering together such as

in short time from the number of five thousand two hundred and five that died in one week it came so utterly to cease as not one at all to die of that sicknesse If it be said that in those times wherein there were so few or no fasts God exceedingly blessed this Kingdom I answer 1. That God might put off his displeasure for neglect of those duties till after and worser times and that he may in these our daies remember that neglect Such an answer doth Jeremy give to the men of Judah that made such an objection Jer. 44. 17 c. 2. Though there were not such extraordinary means publikely used Frequent fasts of old in private yet they were by pious and devout Christians privately and that frequently and fervently used Never was a Parliament called never was an Army sent forth never was there any publike weighty occasion but that such Christians as are before mentioned assembled together by praier and fasting to seek a blessing of God I well remember that at that very time when the Gun-powder treason was discovered a Parliament being summoned there were many assemblies that by praier and fasting earnestly sought of God a blessing upon that Parliament Have we not cause to judge that God had a gracious respect to the praiers of his children who almost miraculously discovered such a dangerous devilish and matchlesse treason as the Gun-powder treason was Thorow the good providence of God we have had more fasts by publike authority enjoyned in the reign of our present Sovereign especially since the beginning of this Parliament then before time from the beginning of the Reformation of Religion But they have been so sleightly and carelesly performed as we have cause to fear that this among other sins hath been one that hath caused Gods heavy wrath so long to lie upon us This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But to leave complaints The weighty occasion of this daies fast the Doctrine which you have heard largely handled doth justifie that course which the great Councel of this Land hath taken about this daies fast The means that we use hath been shewed to be extraordinary He that sees not that the case wherein we now are and the occasion of this daies solemnity is extraordinary is blinde and cannot see far off I will not now stand to aggravate this civil war the severest of Gods judgements nor bring to your minde the houses The calamities of these times Towns and Cities that have been burnt or plundered or spoiled nor the distressed estates of many who in a night of a rich Job have bin made a poor Iob nor the abundance of bloud that hath been shed nor the alienation of affections and bitter contentions that have been betwixt such as have been near in bloud and alliance in neighbourhood and friendship yea also and betwixt such as professe in truth and sincerity to seek the right and perfect way of the LORD neither will I here insist upon the errours heresies and blasphemies that in these daies are published nor the great rent that is made in this Church by schisme These and other like occasions of humbling our selves deeply before the LORD and of crying mightily unto him I now let passe The particular occasion of fasting and praying on this day is to obtain a blessing from heaven upon the Treaty betwixt his Majesty and our Parliament that is now thorow Gods blessing agreed upon Surely this is a very extraordinary case and that in regard of the Necessity Excellency and Difficulty of the matter undertaken 1. Such have been the evils of this civil war whereof a taste was given before and many of them do so continue to increase more and more The necessity of a Treaty as there is a kinde of necessity of a good accommodation for composing our differences and for setling a safe and well-grounded Peace which cannot better be effected then by a Treaty Such divisions such contentions such confusions there are in this Kingdome as it is in danger to be utterly ruined if some speedy course be not taken to repair close up and heal the breaches thereof It was in the case of a civill warre that the chief Commander on the one side said to the other Shall the sword devour for ever Knowest thou not that it will be bitternesse in the later end 2 Sam. 2. 26. Bitternesse there must needs be in such a kinde of warre because on which side soever the victory falleth Israelites members of the Church Professours of the faith are destroied Though the conquered did presse that bitternesse yet the Conquerour gave over thereupon O that they who thorow the divine providence have been kept from the extremity of this warre would lay to heart the condition of them that have felt it not of them only who have been on the other side but of many also who have been on our own side They would then see a necessity of a fair composing our differences and of yeelding to an accommodation usque ad aras so far as may stand with the truth and purity of Religion 2. The main and principall matter of this Treaty Weighty matters to be treated on shews the excellency weight and worth of it It concerns King I might hereunto have added the benefits of peace But these have bin distinctly and largely set down in my Treatise of the Churches conquest on Exo. 17. 16. §. 96. Parliament and Kingdome The prerogatives of the one priviledges of the other and liberties of the third It concerns the Church and Common-wealth and the good government of both It concerns the setling of a distracted Kingdome in peace and quietnesse and the establishing of Religion in truth purity and power It concerns the reconciling of adverse parties even such as have been in open hostility one against another and thereby to put and end to a long unnaturall bloudy civil war What more weighty matters can be treated about 3. The difficulty of bringing this Treaty to a good issue appears in these and other like particulars The great obstacles that lie in the vvay That principles of old learned must be unlearned That long resolved judgements in sundry cases must be upon better information unresolved That jus divinum held in opposite cases must be cleared and demonstrated to which case it belongeth That inbred scruples of conscience must be rooted out That imbittered and alienated affections must be altered That incensed and exasperated spirits must be calmed That hostile friends must be reconciled That vast debts must be discharged That the arrears of numberlesse souldiers must be satisfied That restitution of ships goods lands heriditaments livings offices and other interests must be made That indemnity for manifold outrages must be given and a generall oblivion of wrongs must be granted and burthen of the Kingdome taken off Now who can hope that these and sundry other difficulties can be removed for setling a good