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
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A38025 The Great question, or, How religion, property, and liberty are to be best secured humbly offered to the consideration of all who are true lovers of the peace of church and state... N. E. 1691 (1691) Wing E21; ESTC R17143 33,752 50

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

is that of the Spirit and Truth Suppose he cannot satisfie himself that he loves him with all his heart all his soul all his mind all his strength unless he gives Him an outward as well as inward Worship must therefore God lose his Tribute on either hand No True love to God in this extent will rejoyce in whatever way his Honour be advanced True love to God will make us ready to put the best Construction on whatever any of his Worshippers do True love to God will make us think so modestly of our selves as to believe He who is so much Goodness as that is in him for which we love him may have revealed himself to others as well as us At least 't will so operate as to make us not over forward to censure those who profess to love him as well as we do And what opetates thus on one side will operate the same on the other and make him who thinks a Cereremony a Form a Habit useful no more judge him who hath not hereto attain'd than he would be willing himself to be judg'd for what he thinks himself obliged to No they would both carry it with the greatest moderation and be zealous to approve this their love to God by having love and charity for one another 'T is the Argument of the Apostle If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 John 4.20 And can he love his Brother if he be still censuring him Can he love his Brother if he hath no tenderness for his weak or scrupulous Conscience Can he love his Brother if he be still laying a stumbling-block in his way Can he love him as himself if were that the case he were taking the advantage of every slip to make him fall Or if fallen he doth not rather study how to raise him up than to thrust him still lower and lower To conclude this Doth he love his God with all his heart all his soul all his mind all his strength and will he do nothing to imitate him Or can he rightly imitate Him if he hath no forbearance for his Brother for whom as well as for himself there is so great forbearance with his God But is this then to reconcile all Differences Alas there are Points in Controversie that want particular Answers and Solutions Scruples there are among Christians that will exercise the most profound Enquirer and is this all that is to be said in that multiplicity of Disputes which have so much filled and distracted the World Undoubtedly this must be the method love to God love to our Neighbour will answer all For what though there be several Perplexities and School-Questions which we are not Philosophers enough to penetrate yet if they be not of the Essence and Necessity of Religion if they be not what we are bound to understand or if they find us in that temper of mind that whether we do or do not understand them yet we are resolved they shall breed no difference what is this to the disturbance of our peace Had God whom we are thus to love * seen it absolutely necessary for us all to be just of the same mind in every thing why then did he leave any thing to be indifferent But because 't is so hard to beat Men out of their Prejudices let us see what 't is that occasions these that the great Mistake being once rectified we may no longer stumble at Noon-day Now this will be best done by considering what the Occasion hereof was under the Jewish Oeconomy And what was that but the want of distinguishing between the Moral and Ceremonial Law both which being for God they did not so well consider the different Sanction and Reason of each but as Men are too apt to be taken up with Externals they presently run into too high an Opinion of the later forgetting the weightier things of the former forgetting too that I may at once shew the grossness of their Mistake herein that 't was the Moral Law was their Covenant between God and them as hath been observ'd from Deut. 4.13 and that the Statutes and Judgments given likewise to them by the same Law-giver were but subservient to it and that till the time that what was Type and Figure and only preparatory for better things should have their end and only what was Moral should continue still in its full force and be advanced to that Spiritual Construction which our Lord gave it in his Sermon on the Mount And Men would do well to consider I am sure this alone righly consider'd would make them far enough from setting up any thing against or above the Moral Law but least of all Faith that being but the means to carry us on to the true performance of this and help us out where we come short of it by directing us to the Righteousness of another Men I say would do well to consider whether it be not something like this that occasions many of the Prejudices under the Gospel that we do not sufficiently distinguish between Precepts of a different nature but are apt to set them at variance with one another whereas the Solution of the whole is that of our Lord to the Pharisee Luke 11.42 These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone My meaning is every thing is to obtain in its proper place neither more than what is due is to be given to Circumstantials nor less than what is due to the Essentials of Religion The Fringe of the Garment may adorn but 't is the Garment it self must cover our nakedness and keep us warm Which being rightly weighed would put an end to all Scruples herein For supposing first the Moral Law to obtain in the Comment the Old and New Testament give of it I mean Love and Charity and the Fundamentals agreeable to the Precepts thereof to be kept to we have the full state of that Liberty of Conscience the Christian Magistrate ought to give for ●ove which is the fulfilling of the Law will oblige to and e●rect him in it and the Christian Subject for Love in his Duty to his Superiors and Fellow-Subjects will thus influence him ought to be contented with For what is it Liberty of Conscience respects is it the Law it self whereof we are discoursing or onely the Appendices of it the Worship indispensibly due to God or the manner and external circumstances in which it shall be exercised Or with respect to matters of Faith Are they the Articles of our Creed the Great fundamentals of the Trinity into the belief whereof every Christian is baptized or are they certain Opinions of lesser moment and no way necessary to Salvation whether held the one or the other way that this Liberty consists in I think it will not be said I am sure with any the least reason it