Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	church_n	find_v	scripture_n	3,607	5	6.0436	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66362	Eight sermons dedicated to the Right Honourable His Grace the Lord Duke of Ormond and to the most honourable of ladies, the Dutchess of Ormond her Grace. Most of them preached before his Grace, and the Parliament, in Dublin. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Griffith, Lord Bishop of Ossory. The contents and particulars whereof are set down in the next page.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1664 (1664)	Wing W2666; ESTC R221017	305,510	423

of all Seek ye first the Kingdom of God 1. The act injoyned is Seek ye 1. The act that is injoyned and if Christ had said no more but seek ye all men would have readily obeyed his command for all men seek And now they say we have a Sect of Professors that are called Seekers but as those silly women whereof the Apostle speaketh That they are ever learning 2 Tim. 3.7 and yet never come to the knowledge of the truth So our Saviour saith That many men will seek but they shall not find because they seek amiss and that is Either Why men find not what they seek for 1. What they ought not to seek Or 2. When they should not seek it Or 3. Where it is not to be found Or 4. Not so carefully as they ought to seek it 1. What we ought not to seek for 1. The worldlings seek indeed But what do they seek Quaerenda pecunia primum and for the wealth of this world Currit mercator ad Indos And so the Lawyer seeks the Physitian seeks the Divine seeks and every man seeks for something and too many seek for that which should not be sought for for revenge or for their neighbours goods and therefore they shall not find this Kingdom of God 2. When it is too late to seek 2. Others seek for what they should seek for i. e. the Kingdom of God and yet they find it not because that with those foolish Virgins whereof our Saviour speaketh they seek to enter when the door is shut Matth. 25.10 for as it is too late to shut the door when the steed is stollen so many times it is to no purpose to knock when the door is shut or to seek when it is too late for so Dives Qui negavit micas interris rogavit guttas in poenis which denied the crums to Lazarus on earth desires a drop in hell but he is denied and so shall all they be denied Qui quaerunt salutem in medio Gehennae quae operata est in medio terrae which seek for salvation and help in the midst of Hell or of Purgatory which was wrought in the midst of the earth and should be sought after while we live on earth And therefore the Prophet Esay biddeth us To seek the Lord while he may be found and that is now in the Church Esay 55.6 and not hereafter in Purgatory for now is the time acceptable now is the day of salvation 3. Others seek it and find it not 3. Where it is not to be found because they seek it in the place where it is not to be found for as they that seek for counsel among Fools and honesty among Knaves and truth among Hereticks may seek long enough and yet miss to find them so they that seek for the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of Christ in the Dominion of Antichrist or among unrighteous Rebels shall hardly find it And therefore we must seek it where it may be found and that is in the true Church of God and in his Holy Scripture and not in the Synagogue of Satan or in the Fanatique Conventicles of our upstart Sectaries or in any Popish and absolete Traditions of the Church of Rome 4. Others also seek the Kingdom of God and yet find it not 4. When they seek it so carelesly because they seek it so coldly and so carelesly as they do for great things cannot be had without great labour And therefore Solomon saith he that would find Wisedom must search for it as for Silver Prov. 2.4 and seek for it as we seek for hidden Treasure And you see the worldling cannot get a little wealth without labour the Lawyer cannot understand the Law without study and do you think with our foolish Enthusiasts that we shall understand the Holy Scripture without paines-taking Surely How no great nor good thing can be had without labour they that cannot understand Terence without a Comment shall never be able to expound the deep Mysteries of the Scripture and to reconcile the repugnant Texts thereof without Books and without Labour for as St. Aug. speaketh Quidquid est crede mihi in Scripturis illis altum divinum est Whatsoever is in those Scriptures believe me it is high and Divine and though in some places it is like a shallow Foord wherein a Lamb may wade and the meanest man may understand what he should do and the main points of his belief yet in many other places you shall find it like the deep Ocean wherein the greatest Elephant may swim and the best Wits fail to understand it And if the C●tizen cannot get his Wealth nor the Scholler his Learning without labour and pains do you think to find and to attain to the Kingdom of God by a ●old and careless seeking after it No no that cannot be Quia non dormientibus sed pugnantibus adveniet regnum Dei the Kingdom of God falleth not into the Sleepers lap but they that strive for it shall obtain it and therefore our Saviour bids us Luke 13.24 strive to enter in at the narrow gate and he saith that the Kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it away And so you see how we ought to seek for any thing that we would find when and where and how it may be found that is with such pains and care as it ought to be sought Now 2. The thing that we ought to seek for 2. Our Saviour thinking it not enough to bid us seek lest we should mistake the thing that we should seek and passing by all other things that are scarce worth the seeking or much looking after he setteth down that Vnum necessarium and that Pearl of invaluable price which we ought to seek that is the Kingdom of God And who would not seek a Kingdom Truly if Christ had said no more but seek a Kingdom I think enow would have been ready enough to seek it for it is strange saith Camerarius Camerar l. 5. c. 8. to consider of the inordinate desire that men have had to reign and to rule as Kings what Villainies they have committed to become Kings and what Execrable things they have don to continue Kings The ambitious and inordinate d●sire of men to reign as Kings for Amurath the Third caused five of his younger Brethren to be strangled in his presence and Ismael the second Son to Techmas King of Persia did put to death as many of his Bretheren as he could find and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might reign and rule without fear and Soliman mistrusting his own Son Mustapha when he returned Victorious from the Persian War and was received with such general applause caused him presently to be strangled and Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in Heaven and one Emprour

by-word among the Heathens and our enemies laugh us to scorn Therefore as the good Physitian first se●rcheth out the cause of the disease and then prepareth a potion for the cure and as Joshuah when God turned away from the children of Israel and delivered them up into the hands of their Enemies never left searching Josh 7.18 2 Sam 21.1 till he had found out the accursed thing that was the cause of their destruction and David also when there was a famine three years year after year inquired of the Lord what should be the cause thereof so we must inquire and search out the cause why the Lord hath overthrown all our hedges and given us as a spoyle unto our Neighbours And herein as Demodacus said of the Milesians We have committed the same sins and more sins and more hainously than the Israelites did they were no fools but they did the same things that fools did So I say we are no Israelites but I fear we have committed the same sins as the Israelites did Idolatry injustice and contempt of our Teachers nay have we not added unto these Sacriledge Perjury Drunkenness Luxury and all kind of uncleanness Yea have we not made injustice and perjury and sacriledge and contempt of the Ministers and rebellion against the Ordinance of God and many other sins that formerly were but personal sins now to become national when they are committed continued and maintained by the Representatives of the whole Kingdom And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this saith the Lord Vers 19. Yes saith our Prophet wee shall be to them that desire the day of the Lord for it is darkness and not light and it shall be as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him that is to escape the least and to fall into the greater punishment because the Lion is a more noble enemy than the Bear when as the Poet saith Parcere prostratis scit nobilis ira Leonis But the Bear is a most ravenous raging Beast Hos 5.12.14 that will tear us all to pieces so it is to escape the Sword and to die by Famine to provide against Famine and to be destroyed by the Pestilence which shall follow one another so long as we continue in our sins and the wrath of the Lord shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still As in Levit. 26. after many plagues he addeth I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins And therefore if you would turn away the wrath of God you must turn away from these sins that have provoked him to wrath Quia sublata causa tollitur effectus And then 2. If you would find the Lord 2. The place where God may be found you must go to the place where he resideth for though Enter praesenter Deus est ubique poten or in respect of his omnipotent Essence the spirit of the Lord filleth all places If we climb up into Heaven he is there if we go down to Hell he is there also and as the Schools say he is Supra coelos non elatus subter terram non depressus intra mundum non inclusus extra mundum non exclusus yet in respect of his favourable presence he is not to be found in every place How God filleth all places for if you seek the righteous God among unrighteous men the faithful God among lying perjurers as the Grecians sought for Helen in Troy when she was with Proteus in Egypt we shall be sure to miss him because the holy spirit of discipline fleeth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin and therefore the place is to be considered where we must seek him and that is principally 1. The Church of Christ among the faithful And God is found 1. In the Church among the faithful 2. The holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles 1. As Joseph and Mary when they lost Christ found him not in the waies among their friends and acquaintance but in the Temple among the Doctors so we shall find him not in the factious confederacies of private Conventicles but in the publique assemblies of Gods holy Church Psal 26.8 which is the place where his honour dwelleth not among Perjurers Lyers Rebels and the like but among the faithful and among those that fear the Lord for The Lord is with them that fear him and put their trust in his mercy and with such he may be found And therefore if you would find the Lord you must not walk in the counsel of the ungodly Psal 1.1 nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful you must have nothing to do with the stool or seat of wickedness which imagineth mischief and doth countenance their wickedness by a Law but where you see the righteous gathering themselves in the name of Christ and joyning their forces in the fear of God there is the Lord in the midst of them Lev. 26.12 even as himself hath promised I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people 2 In the holy Scriptures 2. As we may find the Lord in the Church of the righteous so we may find him in the holy Scriptures not in the Turks Alcoron nor in the Popes Canon nor in mans Tradition nor in any like unwritten verities which are the muddy inventions of distracted brains and the idle vanities of seduced souls we send you to no such places to seek the Lord whatsoever the malice of our adversaries saith of us but we direct you to the pure Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thy Word is truth and the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 17.17 John 5.39 Aug. Confes l. 11. c. 2. 2 Tim. 3.13 Hieron in ep ad demetriad testifie of me saith our Saviour and therefore Deliciae meae scripturae tuae thy Scriptures are my delights saith S. Augustine and the reason is rendered by S. Hierom because they are able as the Apostle s●ith to make us wise unto salvation and all wisdom without this is but meet foolishness for Quid prodest esse peritum periturum what will it boot a man to be wise unto perdition to be subtle to play the Rebel to be a crafty Traytor and to go to Hell with a great deal of wit and learning Aug. quo sup as St. Augustine speaketh Psal 120.4.5 Therefore though you should be constrained to dwell with Meshec and to have your habitation among the tents of Kedar among the Egyptians or Babylonians among them that are enemies unto peace as God knows how soon any of us may be taken by such enemies yet if we leave them and take the holy Scriptures there we shall have the Lord to be our companion though we should be shut up with Jeremy in the dungeon But 3. For the