Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45465	Sermons preached by ... Henry Hammond.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1675 (1675)	Wing H601; ESTC R30726	329,813	328

moral men seem to me in as good if not better case than the other term of comparison the careless negligent debauch't men For upon their grounds is it not as easie for the converting spirit to enter and subdue one Lucifer one proud Devil in the heart otherwise pretty well qualified as to deal with a whole legion of blasphemous violent riotous railing ignorant Devils I have done all with the confutation of this loose groundless opinion which if 't were true would yet prove of dangerous consequence to be preached in abating and turning our edge which is of it self blunt and dull enough toward goodness nay certainly it hath proved scandalous to those without as may appear by that boast and exultancy of Campian in his Eighth reason where he upbraids us English-men of our abominable Lutheran licentious doctri●e as he calls it Quanto sceleratior es tanto vicinior gratiae and therefore I do not repent that I have been somewhat large in the refuting of it as also because it doth much import to the clearing of my discourse for if the meer moral men be farthest from Heaven then have I all this while busied my self and tormented you with an unprofitable nay injurious preparation whereas I should have prescribed you a shorter easier call by being extremely sinful according to these two Aphorisms of Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The strongest bodies are in greatest danger and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and height of a disease is the fittest opportunity for a miraculous cure But beloved let us more considerately bethink our selves let us study and learn and walk a more secure probable way to Heaven and for those of us which are yet unregenerate though we obtained no grace of God but that of nature and reason and our Christianity to govern us yet let us not contemn those ordinary restraints which these will afford us let us attend in patience sobriety and humility and prayers the good time and leisures of the spirit let us not make our reasonable soul our profession of men of Christians ashamed of us let not the heathen and beasts have cause to blush at us let us remain men till it may please him to call us into Saints lest being plunged in habitual confident sinning that Hell and Tophet on Earth the very omnipotent mercy of God be in a manner foiled to hale us out again let us improve rack and stretch our natural abilities to the highest that although according to our thirteenth Article we cannot please God yet we may not mightily provoke him Let every man be in some proportion to his gifts Christs Baptist and forerunner and harbinger in himself that whensoever he shall appear or knock he may enter lodge and dwell without resistence Lastly after all thy preparations be not secure if the bridegroom will not vouchsafe to rest with you all your provision is in vain all the morality and learning and gifts and common graces unless Christ at last be born in us are but embryo's nay abortives rude imperfect horrid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Philosopher dies in his nonage in whom Christ was never born The highest reach of years and learning is but infancy without the virility and manhood of the spirit by which we are made perfect men in Christ Jesus Wherefore above all things in the world let us labour for this perfection let us melt and dissolve every faculty and spirit about us in pursuit of it and at last seal and bless and crown our endeavours with our prayers and with all the Rhetorick and means and humility and violence of our souls importune and lay hold on the sanctifying Spirit and never leave till he hath blessed and breathed on us O thou mighty controuling holy hallowing Ghost be pleased with thine effectual working to suppress in us all resistence of the pride of nature and prepare us for thy kingdom of grace here and glory hereafter Now to him which hath elected us hath created and redeemed us c. The X. Sermon JOHN vii 48. Have any of the Pharisees believed on him IT is observable from History with what difficulty Religion attempts to propagate and establish it self with the many what Countenance and encouragement it hath required from those things which are most specious and pompous in the World how it hath been fain to keep its dependencies and correspondencies and submit to the poor condition of sustaining it self by those beggarly helps which the World and the flesh will afford it Two main pillars which it relies on are Power and Learning the Camp and the Schools or in a word authority of great ones and countenance of Scholars the one to force and extort obedience the other to insinuate belief and assent the first to ravish the second to perswade One instance for all if we would plant Christianity in Turky we must first invade and conquer them and then convince them of their follies which about an hundred years ago Cleonard proposed to most Courts of Christendom and to that end himself studied Arabick that Princes would joyn their strength and Scholars their brains and all surprize them in their own land and language at once besiege the Turk and his Alcoran put him to the sword and his religion to the touchstone command him to Christianity with an high hand and then to shew him the reasonableness of our commands Thus also may we complain but not wonder that the Reformation gets ground so slow in Christendom because the forces and potent abettors of the Papacy secure them from being led captive to Christ as long as the Pope is riveted so fast in his chair and as long as the rulers take part with him there shall be no doubt of the truth of their religion unless it please God to back our arguments with steel and to raise up Kings and Emperours to be our Champions we may question but never confute his supremacy Let us come with all the power and Rhetorick of Paul and Barnabas all the demonstrations of reason and spirit yet as long as they have such Topicks against us as the authority of the Rulers and Pharisees we may dispute out our hearts and preach out our Lungs and gain no proselytes all that we shall get is but a scoffe and a curse a Sarcasm and an Anathema in the words next after my text This people which know not the law are cursed there is no heed to be taken to such poor contemptible fellows To bring all home to the business of the text Let Christ come with all the enforcement and violence and conviction of his spirit sublimity of his speech and miracles all the power of Rhetorick and Rhetorick of his power so that all that see or hear bear witness that never man spake as this man yet all this shall be accounted but a delusion but an inchantment of some seduced wretches unless the great men or deep scholars will be pleased