Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	new_a	old_a	testament_n	3,965	5	8.0680	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29932	Dwelling with God, the interest and duty of believers in opposition to the complemental, heartless, and reserved religion of the hypocrite / opened in eight sermons by John Bryan ...	Bryan, John, d. 1676.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1670 (1670)	Wing B5243; ESTC R31994	149,472	465

Persons as prophane and upon that strict profession of walking precisely according to the Rule of the written Word which they think gives you no Warrant for your seperation from their Society in the service of God and my humble and earnest request to you is to lay aside your prejudice and examine by that good Word whether your separation be not sinful I shall presume you will freely grant both that it 's necessary to Salvation that a Man be a member of the true Visible Church because in the Word you finde the profession of the true Religion yea the very hope of Salvation and joyning to the true Chruch going together and that so long as God continueth the Doctrine of Salvation to a People and his Solemn Worship so long he dwells among that People and Salvation may be had there and that no utter separation may be made from those Assemblies where God dwelleth and where Men may be assured to finde Salvation though there may be many great corruptions both in Doctrine and Worship in those Assemblies There were so in the Church of the Jewes in Christ's time the Priests and Teachers were ignorant and wicked and had a corrupt and unlawful entrance into their Calling and the People were like to the Priest generally notoriously and obstinately ungodly and the Worship used in that Church was wofully corrupt many superstitious Ceremonies the Observation whereof were more strictly urged than the Commandments and Ordinances of God the Temples made a Den of Thieves the Discipline and censures shamefully abused the Doctrine was corrupt in many points and the great Sacrament of the Passover ill timed yet the Word tells you Christ whose example it binds you to follow and you profess your selves followers of him in all imitable things made no separation from this Church professed himself a Member of it was by Circumcision incorporated a Member of it received Baptisme in a Congregation of that People was a hearer of their common-service and their Teachers allowing and commanding his Disciples to hear them communicated in the Pass-over with the People and the Priest no more did his Apostles make separation from this Church after his Ascention till their Day had its period Peter and John went to their publick Prayer in their Temple So Paul and Barnabas in their Synagogue By their example it appeares that till God hath forsaken the Church no Man may forsake it and that it is no sufficient warrant to separate from a Church because it is guilty of such sins and corruptions as deserves God should forsake it and for which he hath threatned in his Word that he will forsake it till it appear that God hath put in Execution that which he justly threatned we ought to acknowledge and receive it as his House and not to refuse to dwell with him in it For shall Man be holier than God and hate corruption more than he And yet we may not communicate with it by consenting to any corruptions that are or shall be detected or proved to be in it wherein we have our Saviour's example to guide us All this I take for granted that you will surely grant because many Books largely asserting all this have been many Years in the hands of those who have led away many to separation a syllable whereof they have not gain said and they are in yours nor have I heard a word of your dissenting But this I hear you say that you question the constitution of the Church of England and that you cannot joyn with their Congregations in Divine Worship because they stand under an Antichristian Government and the worship in them is a devised worship Touching the constitution of the Church of England I have no more but this to commend to your consideration namely the answer that was long since given to the Brownists to which I never saw reply given Their Objection was this that the People of England were never rightly called for in the beginning of the Queen's Reign they were by her command and Proclamation compelled to embrace the Protestant Religion and to conform to God's worship whereas in the New Testament we have no Example of People compelled to the Service of God christ commanding Fishermen to convert souls by preaching not Princes to make Disciples by compulsion Therefore the church of Christ had no right constitution The Answer to the separation of old is this that if we speak of a Church first planted the people of such a Nation are first called by the word before they come to be a Church but it is not so of a Countrey where for a long time true Religion hath been professed which is our case And as to that part of the Object that there is no such example in the New Testament 1. The Magistrates were then Enemies to the Christian Religion 2. It sufficeth that we have examples in the Old Testament 2 Kings 23. 21. 2 Chr. 15. 13. 33. 16. 34. 33. Nor have Christian Princes less power in their Dominion to abolish Idolatry and by Law and penalties to compel their Subjects where there is a parity of reason 3. We finde that private Governours in the New-Testament have required and brought in their Families to embrace and profess the Christian Faith Joh. 4. 53. Acts 10. 21. 16. 34. 18. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 16. But that these did any more than teach and command them to learn consent and profess some question if they did so much And so much they did may and ought to do Gen. 8. 9. And whether a Christian Magistrate may do more For though it 's out of all doubt that not only all external duties of the Second Table but also all such of the First Table of the Moral Law are directly and properly of political cognizance yet they doubt much whether any Evangelical Ceremonies or Formes of Worship which relate to Christ be so because they are supernatural and Conscience is the only Rule whereby the Merit of those Duties is to be Judged which must be satisfied before any Papal Injunction can be imposed or obedience can be safely yielded and therefore they would have the ranged not among the essential but among the contingentials of Political Government But they earnestly deny that any internal duties and matters of Faith and Evangelical Doctrine fall within the spheer of that cognizance either directly or indirectly because no humane power extends to acts of the Soul and it is the duty of the Minister and not of the Magistrate to reform even in such matters and yet the Magistrate may and ought to exercise his power for restraining and punishing the fruits and effects of such Errours when the peace of the Common-wealth comes to be disturbed thereby but he has no warrant to punish the misbelief or incredulity concerning Articles of Chirstian Faith no nor Idolatrous Formes of Worship unless they proceed from the errour or obliquity of their Subjects