Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	parliament_n	3,205	5	6.3516	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29365	Babylons downfall a sermon lately preached at Westminster before sundry of the honourable House of Commons / by William Bridge ...	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.	1641 (1641)	Wing B4448; ESTC R5651	21,012	41

nothing The explication is plaine and easie Wherefore I beseech you in Christs stead that are the heads of our Tribes that nothing be obtruded upon the Churches of Christ but what may clearely and plainely have Jus divinum written and engraven upon it Your wisedomes cannot but observe the severall distractions that are both in Church and Common-wealth If you Analize the distractions of the Common-wealth you may finde thereby what is the head of our distractions in the Church also And in the Common-wealth this is that which troubles that proceedings are so illegall O sayes one though it cost me never so much yet if it were according to law I would yeeld unto it This is that which cuts so deepe sayes another there is no law for these and these courses so in the Church I cannot yeeld to this and that custome this and that Innovation for there is no law for it But if a thing be indifferent and authority command it then Jus divinum is written upon it It is the wisedome of authority to preserve the Churches in that liberty wherein Christ hath left them for Authority is Tabularum custos non Author If a thing be indifferent in its owne nature and the doing thereof offensive to a weake brother Authority cannot write Jus divinum upon it for to offend a weak brother is to destroy him 1 Cor. 8. 11. And the destruction of a weake brother is the breach of the morall law Now we all know that authority cannot write Jus divinum upon the breach of the morall law Sal●mon saith Ecclesiast 12. 13. Feare God and keep his commandements for this is the whole duty of man As God is an all-sufficient being for a man to live upon so Gods word is an all-sufficient rule for a man to live by And if wee looke into Is 30. 22. Wee shall finde that God doth not onely command that the Images themselves should be destroyed but that their coverings should bee desiled I remember what Master Dering said in a Sermon before Queen Elizabeth There hath bin much dust in the house and though for the present the house be swept yet the dust is but layd behind the doore and a Hen will come that will spread it all abroad againe Wherefore I beseech you take heed that there be no dust left in the house of God in any corner Give us the ordinances of Christ in their naked and owne colours so shall they be blest to us we under them and you by them It is with you also to set up burning and shining lights in every Candlestick of the Kingdome First that the Candlestick be rightly fashioned secondly that the lights therein be duly setled with golden snuffers not brasen extinguishers This is a speciall help to the fall of Babylon for ye heard from the context that no sooner did there an Angell fly thorow the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gospell that is preaching openly but another Angell followed presently crying Babylon is fallen You know that contraries have contrary consequences Babylon was built by Ignorance therefore the Papists say Ignorance is the mother of devotion and they say truly for indeed ignorance is the mother of their devotion therefore they use their friends that the people may be put off with Mattins and Even-song that so our ignorance might be an in-let to their devotion Wherefore then let there be an Angell sent that is a ministery flying in the midst of heaven that is openly and not by stealth preaching the everlasting Gospell to every place and congregation then will Babylon fall and fall immediatly These be your duties But it is exceeding hard and very difficult to doe these a perfect and full reformation is very good and necessary but exceeding hard and difficult True But did not Abrahams Sacrifice hang in the bryers and bushes Ye read that when Isaac should have beene sacrificed God provided a Sacrifice but that Sacrifice did first hang in the bryars Ye are the children of Abraham and if you would offer a sacrifice of Gods owne a sacrifice that should bee pleasing to him make account that it must hang in the bryars bushes and many difficulties The heathen could say Vertue groves upon the rocks and if the extirpation of Babylon with the reformation of true Religion were not a hard work it were not fit for a Parliament to doe They are met to unty such knots as none else can unty The heathen King said to a poore man Though this gift be too great for you to receive yet it is not too great for mee to give Either it is of God that you are assembled or else it is not if it bee not why sit you here if it be can any thing be too hard for God Wherefore let your faith laugh in the face of difficulties For as unbeliefe will make a thing difficult though never so easie so faith will make a thing easie though never so difficult But this worke is not onely exceeding hard and difficult but very dangerous In great reformations there must be some alterations and alteration cannot be without danger and trouble 1. There is much difference between smart and danger If a man have rotten and aking teeth in his head though the pulling them out be exceeding troublesome and full of ache and smart even to bleeding of the gums and vexation of all the body yet there is no danger much smart but no danger So in regard of the Church and Common-wealth though the pulling out of some rotten members may cause a bleeding make trouble and some disturbance yet there is no danger some ache but no danger 2. Many things seeme to bee dangerous at a distance that are not so at hand When Moses rod was at a distance from him it was turned to a serpent and hee fled from it but when hee tooke it by the taile at Gods command it was his rod in his hand againe Prisons banishments miseries at a distance are serpents to us when we come to them are exceeding comfortable and our rods in our hands 3. Suppose there were danger in a reformation and extirpation of all that 's Babylons yet there 's more danger in want of reformation Vomiting Physick is very troublesome but disease more He that ventures against Babylon at the worst can but lose his life which may bee taken away by the fall of some tyle on the turning of some humour in our body but hee that partakes with Babylon in her sinne shall partake with her in her plagues and punishments to all eternity What a trouble did Achan cause yet hee was but one man his act one and the Babylonish garment but one O what trouble then will it be to suffer many Achans and that continually Augustine sayes that when the Jewes would not acknowledge Christ lest the Romans should come and take their place in preventing losse they lost most They would not lose their earth and they