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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28344	Vindiciæ foederis, or, A treatise of the covenant of God enterd with man-kinde in the several kindes and degrees of it, in which the agreement and respective differences of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, of the old and new covenant are discust ... / [by] Thomas Blake ... ; whereunto is annexed a sermon preached at his funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse, and a funeral oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw.	Blake, Thomas, 1597?-1657.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.; Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1658 (1658)	Wing B3150; ESTC R31595	453,190	558

of the Church of the Jewes so Hereticks are of the Church in Gospel-times 2 Pet. 2. 1. The Apostle tells the Elders of Ephesus Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them For Witches though there were a Law in Israel not to suffer a Witch to live Exod. 22. 18. Yet Israel had Witches as is seen in those that Saul put out of the Land and her that in his distresse he sought unto 1 Sam. 28. Paul had never reckoned up witchcraft among those sinnes that shut out of the Kingdome of heaven and certified the Churches of Galatia of it had there been an impossibility that any such should be found of their number that made claime to it This the Reverend Authour doth as much as acknowledge in the words that follow I deny not saith he but that in some sense any such notorious offendor may have the essence and being of a member of the Church as visible to wit in this sense a corrupt and rotten member fit to be cut off A member of the visible Church though formerly an inoffensive professor of the faith may afterwards fall away into any of these notorious scandals and yet for a while still retain the essence and being of a member of the Church as visible Master Rutherford that is there opposed I suppose will affirme no more Respective to the power of godlinesse there is in them no soundnesse nor yet in those that are better than these Some say that one that is such in any known foule sinne to them is no better than a Heathen as bad as a Turke or Pagan and nothing at all better for the name Christian And I say that to me they are as bad as to them and perhaps worse in the eyes of God This priviledge in which they stand thus interessed is an aggravation of their sinne and a farther provocation of God against them When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sonnes and of his daughters Deut. 32. 19. yet such is Gods long-suffering and forbearance of them that he is pleased to vouchsafe them farther and more large evidences of his favour Nehem. 9. 30. Hierusalem was corrupted more than Sodom and Samaria in all her wayes Ezek. 16. 47. Sodom and her daughters had not done as Hierusalem and her daughters ver 48. Samaria had not committed halfe her sinnes ver 51. In her abominations she had justified both of them yet Hierusalem enjoyed those priviledges that Samaria and Sodom enjoyed not Hierusalem was in covenant ver 16. when Sodom and Samaria were no covenant-people but worshipped they knew not what John 4. ver 22. Corazin and Bethsaida Cities of Israel were no better in the eye of God than Tyre and Sidon yea their sinnes deserved an heavier weight of judgement Matth. 11. 22. It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sydon at the day of judgement than for you saith our Saviour and so it was with Capernaum compared to Sodom ver 23. yet Chorazin Bethsaida Capernaum enjoyed those priviledges from God that Tyre Sydon and Sodom wanted As the Apostles zeal against the Samaritanes sinnes Luke 9. 54 did out-strip our Saviours when they would have fire from heaven to consume them so our zeale out-goes Gods when we would have such men root and branch parent and child struck out of covenant before God hath sued out any Bill of divorce against them or removed his Candlestick and taken all covenant-priviledges from them For the baptism of children of Apostates there is a greater difficulty Some of reverend worth say They see not how justly a Parents Apostasy should deprive the childe of Baptisme and some Texts of Scripture seem strongly to favour that opinion Ezek. 16. 20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sonnes and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy whoredomes a small matter that thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them There could not be an higher evidence of Apostacy than to give their children in sacrifice to a false god It was one of the highest acts of obedience that Abraham could testifie to the Lord and yet these yield it to Idol-gods They bring forth children to God and give them to Moloch Psal 106. 35 36 37 38 39. They were mingled among the heathen and learned their works and they served their Idols which were a snare unto them yea they sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils And shod innocent blood even the blood of their sonnes and of their daughters whom they sacrificed unto the Idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood Thus were they defiled with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions These in this apostatized from God in covenant yet God lookes upon them as a covenant people ver 45. And he remembred for them his covenant c. But this seemes to be but a partial Apostasy taking in the worship of Idols they did not totally cast off the worship of God A line of profession was still it seemes held up God was not wholly cast off in Judah They seem to be of those that swore by the Lord and Malcham Zeph. 1. 5. keeping up the worship of the true God and yet take in the worship of a false god with him As for those in whom Master Firmin instanceth our Englishmen now in Turkey apostatized from the Faith to that Religion concerning whom quaeres are often put it may seem equal that as a man comes into covenant and his posterity with him So totally rejecting the covenant denying God as well in profession as in his works that he and his posterity should be out of covenant Being before an holy root to transmit holinesse to his seed now he becomes unholy and put out of such capacity and is disabled from making over any such priviledge to them But here we need not to trouble our selves with the Baptisme of such having renounced Christ they baptize not their infants in his name A Minister shall have none of these rendered to him and to baptize them into this body when he well knowes they must be never suffered to be of it were an high taking of Gods name in vaine and a mockery of so sacred an Ordinance Now in case a grandfather shall take one of these children and offer it unto Baptisme and being a Progenitor shall undertake the education in the Christian Faith and not in the Turkish abomination whether in this case there be right to Baptisme is the question Now these may be looked upon either as meer Heathens in the same condition as if they never had an Ancestor in the Faith or else as issuing out of the loynes of mediate Ancestors believing and so coming from a root that hath been holy If considered in the former way they may have a title to

That Jewes carnally descended from Abraham or the children of Christians may be made partakers of the Covenant entered of God with Abraham Birth according to the flesh does nothing So also Bellarmine speaking of the covenant with Abraham saith It descends to us not by carnal but spiritual generation So that these men have sucked the spiritual meaning from the Jesuites and Master Marshal holds to the carnal imaginations of Protestant Reformers They produce many Texts of Scripture where this Birth-priviledge in their thoughts is evidently set forth Jesuites contradict it and upon this account it is a carnal imagination to conceive it The Apostle knew not saith one that God had so by promise Object or other engagement bound himself but he was free as he said to Moses after the promise made to Abraham to have mercy on whom he would Rom. 9. 15. If this be meant of any engagement of God to confer saving graces or habitual qualifications on the natural seed of Beleevers the words then carry reason with them But neither he nor his great friends will learn to distinguish between Gods conditional covenant contained in priviledges of Ordinances and habitual saving graces otherwise they know from Moses that God exercised this freedome in making choise of Israel above all Nations and that the Apostle knew and in the same Chapter lets us know Rom. 9. 4. that to them pertained the covenants and that this was their prerogative for Birth-priviledge Rom. 3. 1. We say the son of a Free-man is Free the son of a Noble-man is Noble we never said that the son of a Learned-man is Learned we say that the son of a Christian is a Christian as to interest in Ordinances We never said that the son of a Regenerate man is Regenerate It is further urged Object If this were true that the covenant of Grace is a birth-right-priviledge then the children of Beleevers are children of Grace by nature for that which is a birth-right-priviledge is a priviledge by nature And if Christianity is hereditary that as the child of a Nobleman is Noble the child of a Free-man is Free the child of a Turk is a Turk of a Jew a Jew the child of a Christian is a Christian Then Christians are born Christians and not made Christians and how are they then children of wrath by nature which whether it may not advantage the Pelagians and deniers of Original sinne it concernes those that use such speeches to consider To this I answer It concernes those that presse these objections to see how Chamier Paraeus and other Protestant Writers answer them when they are in their very words urged by Jesuites If they can reconcile Galat. 2. 15. with Ephes 2. 3. then they have an answer The Apostle was by birth of the people of God in covenant and yet by nature a childe of wrath It is further said Object To conceive that it is in Gods Churches as in other Kingdomes and after the Lawes of Nations is a seminary of dangerous superstitions and errours It is well that they have learned an Artifice from these superstition-hating Jesuites to keep out the inlet of superstition among us if there were no parallel held betwixt the Church of God and other Kingdomes after the manner of the Law of Nations but such that are Seminaries of superstition they may do well to acquaint us how it comes to passe that the Curch in Scripture hath the name of a City Family Kingdome Similitudes ever carry some resemblance If this were the alone ground on which the Birth-priviledge of Christians were bottomed they had said something but being only an illustration of it and nothing more they are over lavish in their censure Similitudes indeed may be over-stretched beyond their reach and if they had laid down rules to declare where the Similitude holds and where it holds not as I have done in the Birth-priviledge and made it appear that it holds not in that for which I produce it they had said somewhat to the purpose Read Mal. 1. 6 8 14. and tell me whether there be any ground laid for dangerous superstitions Thirdly It is so in all other Religions they keep up their priviledge of interest in the worship of their Ancestors The childe of a Turke is a Turke the childe of a Pagan is a Pagan the child of a Jew is a Jew And it is the Apostles Argument in like case respective to Ecclesiastical communion that because Sacramental communion rendered them one Ecclesiastical body with Christians so communion in worship will make one body with those of other Religions 1 Cor. 10. 17 18 19. See Paraeus on the words and Cudworths True notion of the Lords Supper There are common principles that are the same in all Religions and we must beleeve them to hold unlesse Scripture hold forth a difference Fourthly God ownes children born in the Church as by birth his his servants Levit. 25. 39 40 41 42. If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant but as an hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubile And then shall he depart from thee both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own family and unto the possession of his fathers shall he returne For they are my servants Root and Branch Parent and childe are servants of God As they were the servants of their Master when they could do them actually no service by reason of their relation to them so they are the servants of God on the same account And as he owns them as his servants so also he ownes them as by birth his children Ezek. 16. 20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sonnes and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy Whoredomes a small matter That thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them If there were no Birth-priviledge how had God this property in Infants and this David pleads Ps 116. 16. O Lord I am thy servant truly I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid because he was borne in Gods house and was a childe of a servant of his he pleads his interest Fifthly If the child be not in covenant the parent and childe are heterogeneal and respective to Church-relation in the most opposite condition the Parent in the Kingdom of God by vertue of the faith that he professes the childe in the Kingdome of Satan by reason of his non-interest in the Promise and want of title to Covenant-relation But Scripture makes them still as one Jewes children are Jewes by nature Gentiles children are sinners that is Gentiles by nature The Root being holy the Branches are holy Parents not sanctified children are unclean but Parents

to doubting Christians First A life in distrust of God and rebellion against God provoking him to the highest punishment of the parents doth not divest the child of the title to the covenant and interest in the Sacrament of initiation into the number of Christians For proof of this look upon that act of Joshua when the people were got out of the Wildernesse and were brought into the Land of Canaan Josh 5. 6 7. The children of Israel walked fourty yeers in the Wildernesse till all the people that were men of warre that came out of Egypt were consumed because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord And the children which he raised up in their stead them did Joshua circumcise for they were uncircumcised they had not circumcised them in the way you see what the fathers were yet the children Joshua ordered to be circumcised Concerning their conversation the parents were enemies but as touching the election the choice made of God the issue is to be numbred among the beloved Who had a worse father than Josiah yet where was there a better son A circumcised man who in youth began to seek the God of his father David 2 Chron. 34. 3. Secondly Misbelief in a parent divests not the issue of this birth-priviledge though the father erre in the faith yet the child is not to be shut out of the number of beleevers We have in this particular the Apostle for a precedent had misbelief in the parent denuded the childe of this priviledge Saint Paul had not beene a Jew by nature but an Heretick or Sectary by nature being before conversion a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee Scribe was a name of office but Pharisee the name of a Sect and therefore Christ warns to beware of the leaven that is of the Doctrine of the Pharisees as of the Sadduces Such was Pauls parentage and yet by descent and off-spring he is of the people of the Jewes What we say of Pharisees is as true of Sadduces It is not to be doubted but they were circumcised persons and entitled their children according to the Directory in Scripture for circumcision as appears by their embodying of themselves with the people of the Jewes Matth. 22. 23. Acts 23. 6. The most strict of Pharisees took them into their society which they had not done had they not been men of the circumcision we see the accusation charged on Peter on this occasion Acts 11. 2 3. A man transmits not his errors nor his vices no more than he doth his graces Thirdly ignorance of needful truths in a parent doth not divest the childe of this priviledge Those were the people of God and therefore brought forth children to God that did perish for lack of knowledge Hosea 4. 6. that went into captivity for lack of knowledge Isa 5. A reverend brother giving his reasons why he is among his brethren singular in this point not baptizing all born in his Parish one maine one is the grosse ignorance among them and that as he sayes not in Cumberland and those parts but in Essex such that if he should print his Reader would scaree beleeve it were possible to be true To which I only say I wish that our own experience in the places where we live did give us occasion of suspition that any wrong is done them Therefore to let the truth passe unquestioned I would only wish him to consider whether there might not have been found the like in Corinth that Church of the Saints 1 Cor. 15. 34. Some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame Whether there he might not have found the like among the illuminated Hebrews were not there those that were dull of hearing that when for the time they ought to be teachers they had need that one teach them againe which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and were become such as had need of milke and not of strong meat yet these were of the Church and therefore with them their children Fourthly illegitimation of birth adulterous copulation in the parents divesteth not such issue of this priviledge David had never in that manner sought in fasting and prayer his childes life had he believed that he must not have been of the seed of the Jews but of the uncircumcised Heathen Pharez was of such a birth yet who bore a greater name and glory in Israel than he and his family even where the illegitimation of his birth is noted there the glory of his race is magnified which is yet farther honoured in that Christ according to the flesh was made of his seed That seed of Abraham per eminentiam was out of his loynes Jepthah indeed was driven out by his brethren but not because that he was not of the seed of the Jews and people of God but because they would not have him to share of the inheritance among them A Reverend Divine saith Objections an ∣ swered That some persons may be notorious offenders as known Atheists mockers of Religion Idolaters Papists Hereticks Witches and yet professe before men the faith seemes to him to imply a contradiction These I confesse are plausible words to take with well-meaning souls that attend not to the language of the Scripture in this particular And for the first if he meanes Atheists in judgement that professedly maintaine in word what Davids fool said in his heart that there is no God and by mockers of Religion not those alone that oppose the power but with Lucian all notion of Religion and by Idolaters those that professedly worship false gods and worship not at all the Lord Jehovah then it cannot be denied that this is a contradiction But Reverend Master Rutherford whom he opposeth in that place hath no such meaning But for an Atheist in life to be a professour of the faith we have Paul expressely for it Titus 1. 16. They professe that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate The Apostle we see saw no contradiction in it and for mockers of Religion Peter did not foretell them to be out of the Church but within the bosome of it when he said There shall come in the last dayes scoffers walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. 3 3. For Idolaters if an Israelite might be an Idolater then a Christian How high were those in Idolatry mentioned Psal 106. 36 37 38 39 and yet in covenant ver 45. For the Church of Corinth the Apostle is plaine A brother may be an Idolater 1 Cor. 5. 11. It is within the Church and not without where men escape death by plagues yet repent not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of gold and silver and brasse and stone and of wood which neither can see nor heare nor walke Rev 9. 20. For Papists I marvel how they are distinguished from Idolaters and Hereticks for Hereticks as false Prophets were