Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	false_a	true_a	worship_n	4,780	5	7.8086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19495	Heauen opened VVherein the counsaile of God concerning mans saluation is yet more cleerely manifested, so that they that haue eyes may come and se the Christian possessed and crowned in his heauenly kingdome: which is the greatest and last benefit we haue by Christ Iesus our Lord. Come and see. First, written, and now newly amended and enlarged, by Mr. William Cowper, minister of Gods word.	Cowper, William, 1568-1619.	1611 (1611)	STC 5920; ESTC S121914	411,827	530

mention of fortie Martyrs who being striped naked were put foorth in the night to be pined with cold and afterward burnt with fire in the day Of these it is euident that nakednesse is one of those tentations whereby Sathan seekes to trouble our faith and patience but he who hath put on the Lord Iesus for a garment neither shame nor losse of naturall life procured by nakednesse can seperate him from the Loue of God Where wee may perceiue how different the dispositions The begged glory of world lings is in their apparell of the Ch●istian and the Worldlings are The men of this vvorld esteemes nakednesse their shame and places a great part of their glory in gorgeous garments and no maruell quia de proprio non habent decorem necesse est vt aliunde mendicent Bern. in cant serm 41. for hauing no glory of their owne they must borrow glory from others From the beasts of the earth they borrow skins and wool from the Fowles of heauen they borrow feathers from the Wormes they borrow silk from the Earth siluer and gold from the Waters pearles and of these doth man make vp his begged glory vvhose glorie in the beginning vvas to be clad in the image of God but what is it decor qui cum veste induitur vt cum veste deponitur Ber. ad Soph. Virg. epi. 113 vestis est non vestiti that beauty which is put on and put off with the garment is not the beauty of the person but of the garment Yet are these but licitae quodammodo insaniae if they be Vnder pretence of hiding their nakednes they shew forth their Nakednesse Cypri trac 2. de habi virg compared vvith the madnesse of others vvho alter by artifice the shape and colour of the countenance vvhich God hath giuen them Manus deo inferunt cum illud quod formauit reformare conantur for they put hands as it were into God while they prease to reforme that which GOD hath formed N●scientes quia opus dei est ●mne quod nascitur diaboli quod mutatur I know they excuse their fact with the couerings of comelinesse and necessitie but praetex●u t●g●ndae turpitudinis Cyril catch 4. in mat●rem turpitudinem incidunt for worldlings are neuer so naked as when they are best apparelled As for men truely godly they vvill thinke shame of wickednes but not of nakednesse impr●bum vocari te pudeat non pauperem Nazian sent aut ignobilem blind Egyptians may account sheepekeepers abhomination but true Israelits will thinke shame to be prophane but no man to be poore those godly ones in the wildernesse clad with sheepes skins and goates skins H●b 11. 37. Acts 12. 21. were more honourable in the eyes of God than Herod in his royall robe of shining siluer glancing the more brightly by the shining of the Sun vpon it if wee will credit Ios●phus But what of all this our vnwillingnesse to want superfluitie of apparell argues that we are euill prepared to endure nakednesse for Christs sake Crosses should not be assumed by our selues but patiently borne when God layes them on Againe wee learne here that seeing nakednesse is one of those crosses whereby the Lord tryes the faith and patience of his children and that then it is time for vs to endure a crosse when God layes it vpon vs it cannot be good religion to impone it to our selues where God layes it not vpon vs. It is a hard thing to keepe mediocritie not to be either too remisse in religion or too superstitious will-Wil-worship what euer shew of godlinesse it hath in the eyes of men is but abhominable idolatry in the eyes of God and we are not to place true religion in those things which he hath not False Prophets weares rough garments to deceiue so they did of old and so they doe stil required the false Prophets ware a rough garment but it vvas to deceiue the Priests of Baal spared not to lance their owne flesh but it is reiected by God as blinde zeale to walke bare-footed or weare a garment of haire without linnen or vvool next the skinne to carry on our head a Franciscanes hood and at last to be buried in it If these things haue in them such holinesse as they pretend is it not a maruell their holy Father the Pope is not careful to make himselfe more holy by changing his triple Crowne vvith a Franciscanes hood or that his Cardinals are so inconsiderate as to redeeme by so excessiue prices a Cardinals hat the haire garment being better cheape and much more meritorious of eternall life Perils The life of a Christian is full of perils euery place 6 The Christian in euery place subiect to perils 2 Cor. 11. 16. vnto him is a palaestra in the sea in the land in the citie in the wildernes goe where he will he shall encounter with perils These are so many probations of our Faith and Patience of Gods truth and prouidence Our preseruation depends on our protector euen the Watch-man of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleepes As a Father hath compassion Comfort for the Christian in all perils on his children so hath the Lord on them who feare him and wee know that a naturall Father doth neuer looke more pittifully vpon his Child than when he sees him in greatest danger and shall we expect lesse kindnesse from our heauenly Father The men of this world when they send out their seruants in commission goes not with them themselues knowes not their danger and are not able to preserue them but the Lord our God when he sends out his seruants fore-sees the perill and goes with them to preserue them Feare not for when thou passest through the water I will be Esay 43. 2. with thee through the flouds that they doe not ouer flow thee The more perils we fall into the more experience haue we of Gods louing preseruing vs for the which wee may say perils may well make vs grow in the sense of the loue of God but cannot seperate vs from him Sword This is the last and by it the Apostle expresses 7 The Christian subiect also to violent death any kinde of violent death for vnto these also the seruants of God and his best beloued Children haue beene subiect euer from the beginning The Apostle glories that no kind of death can seperate vs from Christ yea as hee saith in another place it conioynes vs more neerely vnto him as Nebuchadnezzars Dan. 3. 25. fire loosed the bonds of the three children but hurt not their bodyes so death inflicted by man may loose our bodily bonds but cannot hurt our soules Non sunt ●m●nda spirit●i quae fiunt in carne quae extra nos est quasi vestimentum let not our spirit feare those things which are done in the flesh which is as a garment without vs. Thus we see how no kinde of crosse can seperate vs

all doubting yet is it oftentimes so weake that it is againe disquieted vvith doubting for which if we pray instantly with the Father of that child Lord I bele●ue but helpe my vnbeliefe vvee may be sure at Mark 9. 24. length Faith shall ouercome and thus farre teach wee concerning the assurance which the Christian man hath of his saluation But as for that Religion which teacheth doubtings and A good religion may haue doubting but it is an euill religion which leaues men in doubt pronounceth them accursed who hold that a man may be assured of saluation vvee accu●se it as a doctrine enemie to Faith and Saluation such as is the doctrine of the counsell of Trent Si quis dixerit hominem renatum teneri ex side ad credendum se certo esse ex numero praedestinat●rum anathema sit It is strange to see that where they teach a man is able to Sess 6. cant 15. fulfill the who●e Law of God and by his vvorkes to merit eternall life yet they accurse him if hee say hee is sure to be saued so directly doth one point of their false doctrine impugne another But indeed it is no meruaile if their Religion can yeeld no comfort nor certaintie of saluation to the wearie conscience because they draw men from off the foundation Iesus Christ in whom onely it is promised that we shall finde rest to our soules and would make vs to Mat. 11. 29. leane vpon rotten foundations such as the merit of Masses Why Papistrie cannot make a man sure of saluation the vertue of our workes and humane satisfaction and because all these cannot yet satisfie the doubting consciences of men they suspend them vvith a vaine hope of greater comfort which they shall finde in their forged and comfortlesse Purgatorie thus doe they hold the poore people comfortlesse both in life and in death But as for vs wee will abide on the rocke renouncing all purgation but the purgation of his bloud vvee vvill content our selues vvith Iesus It is not presumption but faith to shew what we haue receiued Christ in whom the Father is well pleased that in him wee may finde rest to our soules which neyther in our selues nor in any other creature shall vvee euer be able to finde Let them call it Presumption Non arrogantia est sed sides Aug. ser 28 praedicare quod acceperis non superbia est sed deuotio it is not presumption but Faith or otherwise if vvee say vnto him who hath begotten vs by the lauer of regeneration Pater bona praesumptio est Father this said Augustine is a good presumption And to the same effect said Bernard Propter Bernard in Septuag hoc data sunt signa quaedam manifesta salutis vt indubitabile sit eum esse de numero Electorum in quo ea signa permanserint This is the truth of God agreeable to Scripture and auncient Fathers which wee doe affirme howeuer they doe accurse it That neyther life By life vve are to vnderstand the pleasures Vanitie of worldly pleasures discouered of this life strong tentations indeed for in the hearts of many they preuaile against the loue of God that we may learne to dispise them and to count vvith the Apostle all things to be dung in regard of Iesus let vs looke vnto those two things vvhich discouers vnto vs the vanitie of worldly pleasures first they are most loathsome to them who haue 1 The abundāce of them makes thē loathsome them in greatest abundance and are most admired of those who haue them not A proofe of this wee haue in Salomon who wanted nothing delectable vnder the Sunne yet by the Eccles 2. 10. very vse of them hee found the vanitie of them and vvas moued to abhorre them It is farre otherwise with heauenly pleasures the more we tast of them the more we esteeme of them hungring still for more we cannot be satisfied vvith that which we haue gotten already Secondly vvorldly pleasures are of this nature that if 2 If they be continuall they become painfull they be continued vvithout intermission they turne into paines therefore is it that those same things which now we choose for recreation incontinently they become vvearisome vnto vs and wee cast them away so that it is not so much by themselues as by the change of them that we are delighted Sola vicissitudine recreamur being weary of walking we refresh our selues with sitting againe being wearie of sitting we rise to refresh our selues with vvalking and so fareth it with all the recreations of this life being continuall they become wearisome So oft therefore as Sathan by vvorldly pleasures vvould steale away our hearts from the loue of God let vs consider how vaine and small a pleasure it is which he vvould giue vs in respect of that vnspeakeable ioy which he would take from vs. Nor death By death vvee vnderstand not onely death Remembrance of death profitable to keepe vs vncorrupted with the pleasures of this life it selfe but all those paines that goe before it and terrours vvhich accompanie it There vvas neuer life so long but it hath beene concluded by death no life so pleasant but the paines of death shall swallow vp all the pleasures thereof As the seauen leane Kine deuoured the seauen fat and the seauen yeares of famine consumed the fruit of seauen yeares of plenty so shall the dolours and terrours of death eate vp all the pleasure and delectations of this vvretched life If vvee suffer the pleasures of this life to bewitch vs be sure the terrours of death shall confound vs. It vvere therefore good that as Ioseph of Arimathia had his Sepulcher in his Garden so wee season all the pleasures of our life vvith remembrance of our death this is summa Philosophia Yet our comfort is that if wee liue in Christ no terrour Comfort for the godly against death of death can seperate vs from him yea death conioynes vs neerer to the Lord Iesus then we were before we see oft-times by experience that the children of GOD haue so triumphed in the very dolours of death and reioyced in the sense of Gods loue that they haue forgot all their bodily paines As the top of mount Pisgah was to Moses the place Deut. 34. 1. of his death and the first place wherein euer he got a sight of Canaan so shall death be to the children of God vvhere we lay downe the sight of this world there shall wee take vp the sight of eternall life vvhich shall neuer be taken from vs. Nor Angels By Angels here I vnderstand not elect Reprobate Angels how they are Gods messengers and to what end Angels for they are not enemies to vs but ministring spirits for our saluation but reprobate Angels for these names of Angels principalities and powers are common both to good and euill Angels And they are so called partly from the power vvhich