Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	righteousness_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	37	3	8.7667	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39669	The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mysterie of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing F1169; ESTC R20432	474,959	654

art a guide to the blind c. And this is the temptation and delusion of knowing persons who are so far from being blind in their own account that they account themselves the guides of the blind yet who blinder than such men Fourthly External reformation is improved by the policy of Satan against true Spiritual reformation and passes current up and down the world For conversion though it serves only to strengthen Satans interest in the soul Mat. 12. 44. and for want of a real change of heart doth but increase their sin and misery 2 Pet. 2. 20. This is the generation that is pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthiness The cleanness of their hands blinds them in discovering the foulness of their hearts Fifthly The policy of Satan improves diligence in some duties against the convictions of other duties The external duties of Religion as hearing praying fasting against the great duties of repenting and believing This was their case Isa 58. 2 3. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approching to God Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou takest no knowledge Thus duty is improved against duty the externals against the internals of Religion and multitudes are blinded this way Sixthly The policy of Satan improves zeal against zeal and thereby blinds a great part of the world he allows men to be zealous against a false religion if thereby he may prevent them from being zealous in the true Religion He diverts their zeal against their own sins by spending it against other mens Thus Paul was once blinded by his own zeal for the law Act. 22. 3. And many men at this day satisfie themselves in their own zeal against the corruptions of Gods worship and the superstitions of others who never felt the power of true Religion upon their own hearts a dangerous blind of Satan Seventhly The policy of Satan improves the esteem and respect men have from the people of God against their great duty and interest to become such themselves Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead It is enough to many men that they obtain acceptation among the Saints though they be none of that number the good opinion of others begets and confirms their good opinion of themselves Eighthly The policy of Satan improves soundness of Judgment against soundness of heart An Orthodox head against an Orthodox heart and life Dogmatical faith against justifying saith This was the case of them before mentioned Rom. 2. 18 19. Men satisfie themselves that they have a sound understanding though mean while they have a very rotten heart 'T is enough for them that their heads are regular though their hearts and lives be very irre●…gular Ninthly The policy of Satan improves the blessings of God against the blessings of God blinding us by the blessings of providence so as not to discern the want of spiritual blessings perswading men that the smiles of providence in their prosperity succe●…s and thriving designs in the world are good evidences of the love of God to their souls not at all discerning how the prosperity of fools deceives them and that riches are often given to the hurt of the owners thereof Tenthly The policy of Satan improves comforts against comfort false and ungrounded comforts under the word against the real grounds of comfort lying in the souls interest in Christ. Thus many men finding a great deal of comfort in the promises are so blinded thereby as never to look after Union with Christ the only solid ground of all true comfort Heb. 6. 5 9. And thus you see how the God of this world blindeth the minds of them that believe not and how the Gospel is hid to them that are lost The Thirty fifth SERMON Sermon 35. 2 COR. 4. 3 4. Text. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them THe words have been opened and this point observed DOCT. That the understandings of all unbelievers are blinded by Satans Doct. policies in order to their everlasting perdition We have shewn already what the blinding of the mind or hiding of the Gospel from it is it hath also been demonstrated that the Gospel is hid and the minds of many blinded under it you have also seen what policies Satan uses to blind the minds of men even in the clearest light of the Gospel It remains now that I open to you the dreadful nature of this judgement of God upon the souls of men and then make application of the whole There are many Judgements of God inflicted upon the souls and bodies of men in this world but none of them are so dreadful as those Spiritual Judgements are which God inflicts immediately upon the soul and among Spiritual Judgements few or none are of more dreadful nature and consequence than this of spiritual blindness which will appear by considering First The Subject of this Judgement which is the soul and the principal power of the soul which is the mind and understanding faculty the soul is the most precious and invaluable part of man and the mind is the superiour and most noble power of the soul it is to the soul what the eye is to the body the directive faculty The bodily eye is a curious tender and most precious part of the body When we would express the value of a thing we say we prize it as our eyes The loss of the eyes is a sore loss we lose a great part of the comfort of this world by it Yet such an affliction speaking comparatively is but a trifle to this If our bodily eyes be blinded we cannot see the sun but if our spiritual eye be blinded we cannot see God we wander in the paths of sin 1 John 2. 11. we are led blindfold to hell by Satan as the Syrians were into Samaria 2 Kings 6. 19 20. and then our eyes like theirs will be opened to see our misery when it is too late The light of the body is the eye saith Christ If therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 22 23. By the eye he means the practical judgment the understanding faculty which is the seat of principles the common treasury of rules for practice according unto which a mans life is formed and his way directed If therefore this power of the soul be darkened how

Sermon 13. HAGGAI 2. 7. Text. Alluring the hearts of men to come to Christ by a fourth motive contained in another Title of Christ. And the desire of all Nations shall come THe former Chapter is mainly spent in reproving the negligence of the Jews who being discouraged from time to time had delayed the rebuilding the Temple and in the mean time imployed their care and cost in building and adorning their own houses but at last being perswaded to set about the work they meet with this discouragement that such was the poverty of the present time that the second structure would no way answer the magnificence and splendor of the first In Solomons days the Nation was wealthy now drained so that there would be no proportion betwixt the second and the first To this grand discouragement the Prophet applies this relief that whatsoever should be wanting in external pomp and glory should be more than recompensed by the presence of Jesus Christ in this second Temple For Christ the desire of all Nations saith he shall come into it Which by the way may give us this useful note That the presence of Jesus Christ gives a more real and excellent glory to the places of his worship than any external beauty or outward ornaments whatsoever can bestow upon them Our eyes like the Disciples are apt to be dazled with the goodly stones of the Temple and in the mean time to neglect and overlook that which gives it its greatest honour and beauty But to return In these words we have both the description of Christ and an index pointing at the time of his incarnation he is called the desire of all Nations and the time of his coming in the flesh 't is plainly intimated to be while the second Temple should be standing where by the way we find just cause to admire and bemoan the blindness that is hapned to the Jews who owning the truth of this Prophecie and not able to deny the destruction of the second Temple many hundred years past will not yet be brought to acknowledge the incarnation of the true Messiah notwithstanding But to the point the character or description of Christ stiled the desire of all nations who was to come into the world in the time of the second Temple Mal. 3. 12. and that after grievous concussions and shakings of the world which were to make way for his coming for so our Prophet here speaks I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come to which the Apostle alludes in Heb. 12. 26. applying this prophecie to Jesus Christ here called the desire of all Nations putting the act for the object desire for the thing desired as in Ezec. 24. 16. the desire of thine eyes that is the desirable Wife of thy bosome So here the desire of all nations that is Christ the object of the desires of Gods elect in all nations of the world A Saviour infinitely desireable in himself and actually desired by all the people of God dispersed among all kindreds tongues and nations in the world From whence this note is DOCT. That the desires of Gods Elect in all Kingdoms and among Doct. all people of the earth are and shall be drawn out after and fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The merciful God beholding the universal ruines of the world by sin hath provided an universal remedy for his own Elect in every part of the earth Christ is not impropriated to any one Kingdom or Nation in the world but intended to be Gods salvation to the ends of the earth and accordingly speaks the Apostle Col. 2. 11. There is neither Greek nor Jew Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all In the explication of this point two things must be enquired into 1. Why Christ is called the desire of all Nations 2. Upon what account the people of God in all Nations desire him First Why he is called the desire of all Nations and 1. what that Phrase may import and there are diverse things that are supposed or included in it First That God the Father hath appointed him as a common remedy for the sins and miseries of his people in all parts and quarters of the world So in the Covenant of Redemption betwixt the Father and the Son the Lord expresseth himself Isai. 49. 6. and he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the end of the earth Suitable whereunto is that Prophecie Isai. 52. 15. He shall sprinkle many Nations If God had not appointed him for he could not be desired by all Nations And indeed herein the grace of God doth admirably shine forth in the freeness of it that even the most barbarous Nations are not excluded from the benefit of redemption by Christ. This is that the Apostle admires that Christ should be preached to the Gentiles 1 Tim. 3. 16. A people that seemed to be lost in the darkness of Idolatry yet even for them Christ was given by the Father Ask of me saith he and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Secondly Christ the desire of all Nations plainly notes the sufficiency that is in him to supply the wants of the whole world as the Sun in the Heavens suffices all Nations for light and influence so doth the Sun of Righteousness suffice for the Redemption Justification Sanctification and salvation of the people of God all the world over Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth Thirdly It implies the reality that is in godliness it shews you that Religion is no fancy as the Atheistical world would perswade us and this evidently appears in the uniform effects of it upon the hearts of all men in all nations of the world that are truely religious all their desires like so many Needles touched by one and the same Loadstone move towards Jesus Christ and all meet together in one and the same blessed object Christ. Were it possible for the people of God to come out of all Nations Kindreds and Languages in the world into one place and there confer and compare the desires and workings of their hearts though they never saw each others face nor heard of each others name yet as face answers to face in a glass so would their desires after Christ answer to each other all hearts work after him in the same manner what one saith all say these are my troubles and burthens these my wants and miseries the same things my desires and fears one and the same Spirit harmonically works in all Believers through the world which could never be if Religion were but a fancie as some call it or a combination or confederacy as others