Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	law_n	parliament_n	3,975	5	6.2994	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30574	An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of the prophesy of Hosea being first delivered in several lectures at Michaels Cornhil, London / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the seventh book published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682.	1650 (1650)	Wing B6070B; ESTC R36308	388,238	512

only materially good but formally also that is which is done in obedience to God And that shews the dangerous condition of ignorant people all their actions are sin because they know not Gods mind in them Thirdly To go about great businesses without consulting with God it is sin Even the Heathens were conscious of this therefore Pullius Scipio would never go out about any great business but would go to the Capitol to pray to the gods Fourthly Alteration in Civil Government is a great business God had need be much consulted withal especially if there be any Church-work mingled with it there was never a time that England had the calling for such consulting with God as it hath at this Now England is about the greatest and weightiest business that ever it had since it was a Nation The very alteration but of an Officer is a great matter and requires much consulting with God and especially if it be in the Church it is very observable of our Savior in Luke 6. 12 and 13. verses when as Christ was to send out his twelve Apostles as Officers for the Church the text saith That he was at prayer all night before then in the morning he calls his Disciples and so sends forth twelve of them and gives them his Commission But he makes a preparation all night long in praying to God Surely those that are about chusing Church Officers Ministers of God to be their Pastors and Teachers they had need spend daies and nights in prayer Here they did not consult with God in setting Jeroboam over them and therefore saith God they have made them Kings but not by me Lastly When we are about great businesses we must look at Gods ends we must take heed of our passionate wills and our own self ends else we do it not by God In Civil Affairs a man that is a Magistrate perhaps doth that which is just but he is carried on in his passion but this is not by God and so in Church affairs the Church Elders the party doth deserve it yet if they be carried on in passion and self-ends this is not done by God They have set up Kings but not by me And then further As the people sin'd and God would not own what which they set up so Jeroboam sin'd too Why Jeroboam might say Lord didest not thou send thy Prophet to tell me that I should have the ten Tribes and yet wilt thou not own me No God would not own him First Because Jeroboam did not seek God And secondly Jeroboam did not stay Gods time As David he was anointed by God and though he had many opportunities for to have taken away Sauls life he would not and to come to the Kingdom but he did wait till he saw the time was come that he should be brought to the Kingdom But Jeroboam would not do so Thirdly Jeroboam had not right ends in taking the Kingdom Fourthly Jeroboam did not administer the Kingdom for God and therefore God would not own him and so some reade the words They have not administred the Kingdom by me but administring the Kingdom by their own lusts therefore God would not own them From whence you may have these Notes First That when God promises a mercy if we stay not Gods time we can have no comfort of the mercy Secondly When we have a mercy promised we must be brought into it by God by lawful means he that beleeves makes not hast saith the Scripture many they are so greedy of places and preferments and other things they desire that they make so much hast as if they did fear that if they stay for the orderly coming into the place they desire they fear they should go without it What blessing then can there be in that which we would seek to get without God in making so much hast And again When we have a mercy that 's the third note when we have what we would have yet if we do not improve it for God we do thereby renounce our acknowledgment of it from God God hath given thee an Estate or Honors or Preferment What doest thou do Doest thou now abuse this for thine own lusts Thou doest hereby renounce thy acknowledgement that thou hadst it from God They have set up Kings but not by me I will not own that Why because in the way of their Administration they have indeed renounced any right I have to their Government And so the Seventy translate the words They have reigned to themselves Yea but it may be said How were the people that were living now guilty of this this was a long time ago when the people did thus set up Jeroboam and rend themselves from the house of David how came they to be guilty of this The Answer is That they continuing and retaining the Government of Jeroboam upon the same ground their progenitors first raised it are guilty of their sins Children going on in the way of their parents contract the guilt of their parents sin upon them And Mercer upon this place quotes an Hebrew David Kimchi That the people now when they saw what Jeroboam and his successors did that they would keep them from going to Jerusalem before the Lord and when they saw that he made them Idols and so forsook Gods true Worship they saith the Hebrew Doctor should have driven him from the Kingdom that was his opinion but meerly for Religion it cannot be except the Law of the Country will bear them out in it any farther than the Law of a State the Civil Law will bear men out in it and therefore War it is not meeely undertaken for maintaining Religion immediately but for maintaining those Laws by which Religion is established the Civil Right that men have to the practice of their Religion And so Wars may be undertaken If it were in a place indeed where the Law of the Kingdom were utterly against Religion could not there be justified except those that had power likewise for the altering those Laws should alter them and then take up Arms. But now Our taking up Arms is justified in this To maintain the Civil Right that we have to the practice of our Religion so that our Case is not the Case of the Christians among the Heathens There is a Law of Nature I confess beyond the Right of any Law and the Right in that cannot be given away by any Predecessors But because the mischief would be infinit great if it were left to every man to judge when by this Law of Nature he might resist and so to resist upon it this would cause infinit mischief therfore there is a necessity that men should for their particular suffer rather than so to resist it is necessary for us to stay till we be helped by some orderly legal way I say the God of Order never leaves people to such miserable

will his heart is fixed because he trusts in the Lord. It follows For the people thereof shall mourn over it The people thereof Here he speaks about the Calf of Beth-aven in the singular Number for so I find it 's refer'd by most Interpreters The people of the Calf Of it not of Samaria From thence the Note would be thus That wicked men Idolaters did dedicate themselves to their Idols they are the people of the Idol Those that were the very peculiar of God and his Treasure the People of God now they are called the people of the Calf for they have none to go to for help but only that Idol of theirs they had forsaken God And it 's said That they yet mourn over it Though certainly at first the setting up of the Calf could not but be a very strange thing to the people of Israel yet within a while after they were used to it they did worship it and it took their very consciences so as they loved it and when it was taken away they mourn'd and were in extream distress and trouble Idolaters they do mourn when their false worship is taken from them At this day my Brethren how do many mourn after their superstitious vanities their superstitious customs that they were wont to have Now Prelates and Service-Book and Altars and such kind of things are taken away when they come to meet together Oh! now all Religion is gone So they perswade poor people in remote parts that the Parliament hath taken away all Religion and there is a great mourning in their spirits they think they know not how in the world to serve God if their Book be taken away from them and I make no question it hath been a cause that many have taken up Arms meerly to defend such superstitious vanities and customs that they were wont to have Their Burialls for the dead as they were wont to have Oh! they mourn for this and they would almost as lieve lose their lives as such kind of things as these are I remember I have read of the Indians that were wont to worship an Apes Tooth it was a Religious Relick among them and it was taken from them and there was a great mourning among them so that they came and offered a very great price that was valued at thousands to redeem but their Apes Tooth that was taken from them because it was a Religious Relick And so we have men this day though their superstitious vanities and customs be no better than a very Apes Tooth yet they mourn over them and would be willing to part with a great proportion of their estate to redeem them again they mourn after their Calves Oh! how should we mourn after the true Worship of God then how deer should that be to our souls For Calves Superstitious Relicks and Customs Apes Teeth and such things be so deer to Idolaters Oh! those Ordinances of God in which our souls have met with so much soul-refreshings and communion with God and so much of the Spirit of God let out to our souls through them Such enlightenings by them Oh! how should we mourn after them You that have gotten any thing by the Word by the Ordinances of God that ever hath known what it hath been to have communion with God in them you should think with your selves If these should be taken from me then I should have cause to mourn indeed I have lost much of my estate and my friends many of them are lost and these are cause of mourning Oh! but if I should lose the Ordinances and Worship of God Oh! what cause would there be then of mourning It follows And the Priests thereof that rejoyced on it The Priests they especially mourn The word that is here translated Priests it is in the Hebrew Chemarims and I find it signifies three things the word from whence it comes Chemar signifies to sound out and so some think that it is they are call'd Chemarims because of their clamorous sounds that they were wont to have in their superstitious worship Just as we were wont to have Bellowing in their Cathedrals so they were wont to have and therefore they were call'd Chemarims because of their mighty noises and sounds that they were wont to have Secondly It signifies to burn or to be hot Aud so Luther I find takes the word and saith That they were called Chemarims from their burning desires after their waies of false worship But I rather think there is a third that signifies to be Black from burning because those things that are burnt they are made black When the flame first takes hold upon a thing it makes it black and so Chemarims are as much as black ones or indeed Black Coats they were wont to be known by their black garments and therfore they are called by the name Chemarims because of their black garments that they were wont to use and I find in 2 King 23. 5. that this word that is here Priests is there Idolatrous Priests it 's the same word Those Black-Coats that were then they accounted it a kind of Religion to go in Black from thence they would have the name And though certainly it 's fit for the Ministers of the Gospel to go gravely and decently and not to express lightness and vanity in their garments yet to put a kind of superstition upon black as upon necessity they must wear black Coats and no other garments will serve the turn As heretofore th●re was a kind of superstitious vanity put on it Now though gravity be required in their very ●arments yet to stand so much upon the very colour there may be danger in it and those that are look'd upon as Religious men that should differ any way from others that they should be tied and bound to it I say this there is an evil in it they were wont to do so here and so almost all your Heathens and superstitious people they had alwaies a special colour for the garments of their Priests as the Turks have their green for the colour of the garments of their Priests But thus much only for the name Chemarims Their Priests that rejoyced Rejoyce that is They that did exult over the Calves Oh! the Priests the Calves made for them they got the King to be on their side and they made the Calves brave and they had brave kind of Worship about it and many pompous Ceremonies about it and the Priests they gloried in this for they had a special hand in all and because they had the countenance of Authority for their Calves that they were able to crush any that spake against them they exulted the text saith But now there 's a threatning That they shall mourn those Priests that did so glory in their Calves as who were they that did glory so much in pompous Altars and other braveries but your Priests they exulted and had all under them and would

them to maintain that way of theirs they had countenance from men of Power they had strength enough to crush any that should oppose them That 's the Note that lies plainly before us When the outward strength of a Kingdom goes along with a way of Religion then men think it must needs be right and that all men are but weak men that appears against it Mark the connexion They trusted in their way that is as I find generally Interpreters go The way of Religion And then their Mighty Men these two are put together so that you see the Note is very evident before you that 's the way that generally men will trust in and men will go that way were the scale turn'd and the strength of the mighty men went another way As now Suppose that the strength of the Kingdom of the ten Tribes had been bent to go up to Jerusalem to worship and not to worship at Dan Bethel Do you think there would have been almost any considerable party that would not have gone up to Jerusalem but worshiped at Dan Bethel but when the strength of the Kingdom held the other way when the mighty Men and the way of Religion went both in one the generality of the people went that way that the mighty men went This is the vanity and the exceeding evil of mens hearts that which way soever the mighty men go that way they will trust in There are very few that will deliberatly say so I will go that way that I see the mightie men go in But this is a secret byass poise upon the spirits of men w ch inclins them to harken to what may be said for that way not willingly to what may be said for another And secondly It is such a poise upon their spirits as makes them to be willing and ready to let in any probability if there be but the least probability for the way that the mighty men go on in they take in that and when they have taken in one probability that makes way for another and another and so they drink in more and more so com to be strengthned for that way so as to put off the strength of any thing that can be said against the way except it be so apparent as whether they will nor no they must be forced to sin against their consciences directly if they go another way I say when the spirits of men are byassed by seeing the strength of the Kingdom go in a way though perhaps they may have some good lie at their hearts yet there is that corruption in mans heart that except we can make the other way so cleer that notwithstanding all shifts and all kind af reasonings that may be they shal be self-condemned in their own consciences that their consciences shall tell them they go directly against their light I say except we can come thus we cannot prevail with mens hearts when the sway of a Kingdom goes another way And there are many Truths of God that concerns his Worship that cannot be made so cleer but that a man may have such a diversion to satisfie his conscience in this That I in going another way do not go against my conscience God would have us that what is most likely to be his mind that way to go without any consideration of any outward respects Now if there be a temptation for outward respects that they will come into the ballance do but turn the ballance and suppose in your own heart that all outward respects were in the other ballance that all the mightie men were of the other way what would your hearts think In Revel 13. 3. That when Power and Authority was given unto Antichrist The whol World wondred after her So it is ordinary that way that the mighty men go that way mens hearts will generally go Oh! the little honor that Jesus Christ hath by us Our hearts are swayed for the most part by carnal Arguments and carnal Motives Again They trust in their way and in the multitude of their Mighty Men. Great Armies are the things that are the Confidence of Carnal hearts when they can get a great Army up of a multitude of Mighty Men let there be never such threats in the Word yet if they think they have strength enough to bear them out they bless themselves in that Oh! let us take heed of this Carnal Confidence Through Gods Mercie the Lord hath given us now that we have the multitude of Mightie Men on our side let us take heed that our Faith do not eb and flow as our Armies do and I wil give you one Scripture that shews how far a gracious heart is from making flesh his Arm Cursed is that man you know the Scripture that maketh flesh his Arm. But an example of a godly man to shew how far he was from trusting in an Armie of mighty men in 2 Chron. 14. 11. It is nothing saith Asa with thee to help with many or with them that have no power Why Lord though we have no power yet thou canst help us Why did Asa speak thus Had he no power You shall find in the Chapter a little before that Asa had five hundred and fourscore thousand valiant fighting men Almost six hundred thousand valiant men that he had at that time when he is pleading with God Lord thou canst save where there is no power We account it a great Army if we have twentie or thirtie or fourty thousand men he hath almost six hundred thousand men and yet goes to God and praies Lord thou canst help where there is no power And yet further from the connexion of these two Their way in which they trusted That is The way of Religion they thought that was good But had they had nothing else to trust in but that their trust would not have been very sure From thence the Note is this That those who trust to any way of their own had need of creature strengths to uphold them It 's a Note of very great use they had need of bladders to be under their arm-holes if they trust in a way of their own But now if the Way be the Way of God that a man hath confidence in why then though all outward helps should fail him though all encouragements should fail in this world though we should see the creatures at never so great a distance yet the heart that hath confidence in Gods way hath enough to uphold it here 's the difference between men trusting in their own way and in Gods way Indeed when men trust in their own way so long as the Sun shines upon their way that they have external helps they can go on confident but let outward helps fail and their hearts sink within them But now when the heart is upright with God and trusts in the Word and Promises then it is able to say with Habakkuk in Chap. 3. 17.