Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	abraham_n	promise_n	seed_n	3,082	5	8.1194	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43698	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable George Earl of Berkeley, Governour, and the Company of Merchants of England trading into the Levant Seas at St. Peters Church in Broadstreet, January, 25, 1680 / by Charles Hickman ...	Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.; Berkeley, George Berkeley, Earl of, 1628-1698.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1896; ESTC R11269	15,523	36

both temporary and local was now in the fulness of time to be utterly abolished though the promise was made only to Abraham and his Seed and that promise solemnized only at the Temple yet the time was coming when the Temple should be destroyed and God would raise up from those stones even from the ruins of the Temple children unto Abraham The mighty Fabrick should fall down and in three days a more glorious than that should be erected instead thereof So much for the Place 2. As for the Object of their worship the answer is Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews Here the Samaritan Church stood in great need of a Reformation for though they feared the Lord yet they served their own Gods also after the manner of the Nations And though by the frequent Conversion of Jews to their Church they had laid by the grosser parts of their Idolatry yet they kept their Idols and graven Images in their houses and worshiped according to our Saviours words they knew not what In this respect our Saviour adjudges the Cause to the Jewish side alledging that though the Ceremonial part of their worship was now expiring yet the substance thereof should never change God is the same for ever and the object of their worship shall remain throughout all Ages They are the only Church which truly acknowledges the only true God and therefore Salvation is of the Jews and from them it shall be derived to all other Nations But 3. Though the Jews did worship the true God yet the manner of worship was imperfect and deficient even amongst them and the imperfection thereof consisted herein while their service depended upon outward forms alone and they were taught to offer up the fruits of their bodily labour for the Sins of their Soul whilst they measured their obedience by these dead works of the Law and their devotion only by hearing or repeating the forms prescribed by Moses then could this people draw nigh unto God with their mouths when their heart was far from him When the Sacrifice was ended their work was done and they could return to their sins with this satisfaction that the scape-Goat in the wilderness had carryed off all their transgressions that were past and the Goats in their Folds could expiate for all that was to come Thus they thought they might obtain forgiveness of their sins without any Reformation of their Minds for their Flesh was always willing but their Spirit was always weak Thus the Jews worshipped the true God by types and figures but the Samaritans worshiped types and figures for the true God that worship was true but imperfect this was neither perfect nor true Therefore for the instruction of both Jew and Samaritan our Saviour tells them that The hour cometh and now when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth In Spirit first to distinguish the Gospel-service from the shadows of the Jewish Law which in Scripture are called carnal ordinances And then in Truth to divide it from the Samaritan Idolatry and all other superstitious errors To worship in Spirit therefore is to bow the knees of our heart and not content our selves with the outward devotion of the body alone which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience but to offer up the only acceptable Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit To worship God in Truth is to worship the true God in such a manner as he has directed without profaning his service as the Samaritans did by a mixture of Heathenish Superstitions and Idols which are called lies And those who thus worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth our Saviour terms the true worshippers for the discovery of whom I proceed in the third place to apply the former discourse to the present times that by our Saviours deciding this Controversie we may be able to pass some judgment upon the Controversies of these our days which have so miserably rent our Nation and do lively represent unto us the antient discord between the Jews and the Samaritans And herein I must beg your favour and patience if I am necessarily led not by my own inclinations but by the method of my Text to touch upon some of those sores which so unhappily afflict us that they cannot be heal'd without handling nor handled without regret and pain and yet as I shall avoid all unnecessary unprofitable provocations and endeavour with a tender hand not to enlarge but to close the wound so I hope none will be offended at this charitable design especially in defence of that Church whereof of we all here profess our selves to be Members 1. Then As in those days so now also we find that of all the disputes which divide the hearts of men and disaffect them from each other there are none raised with more Ignorance and Pride carried on with more Heat and Animosity nor concluded with more Labour and Difficulty than those which concern Religion and the different ways of worshipping God No Opinion is so absurd but it will serve to lay the foundation of a Schism amongst the discontented inconsiderate multitude and gain sturdy Proselytes too in spight of all the convictions of Reason if it can plead either ease or interest in its behalf For though all Nations do agree in the certainty of a God and the necessity of his worship yet when men think themselves so wonderfully wise that neither the height nor depth of his wisdom are beyond his reach when they will intrude into the Counsels of the Almighty and shape his worship according to the extravagance of their fancy then does their wisdom degenerate into ignorance and the strength of their reason only betrays them to labour and folly Hardly do we guess aright at the things upon Earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things that are in Heaven who hath searched out and thy Counsels who hath known said the wisest of men But though the Ignorance of man be great yet generally his Pride is greater than that and those false Notions which in his vanity he has conceived in his obstinacy he will defend There are few so ingenuous as to confess an error and the most ignorant are always the hardest to convince They will impose their own fancies upon others with that eagerness as if they really were what they falsly stile them the only Divine Truths and immediate Revelations of God and to disbelieve their Opinion is to renounce their friendship Thus the Heathens though they had no knowledg of God yet they also would fight pro aris focis for their Gods as well as their Country and the sharpest Persecutions that the world ever saw were raised by the Romish Emperors first and after them by their Successors the Romish Bishops against the professours of the true Primitive Christianity No wars are so bloody

Mountain 2. Because they call Jacob Father with a particular expression of Reverence Art thou greater than our Father Jacob 3. Because an Argument drawn from their Fathers worship had been of no force if the date of that worship had not commenced before the Temple of Jerusalem and the Samaritans must have confessed themselves as indeed they were Schismaticks and Apostates from the Church of Israel they had then exposed themselves to that terrible objection from the Jews Where was your Religion before Salmaneser Whereas now they could confidently say to the Jews themselves where was your Religion before Solomon when they thought their own as Ancient as their Father Jacob. And no wonder that they should call Jacob Father and pretend to be of the seed of Israel For though after the Captivity the Land was at first inhabited by the Babylonish Nations yet in process of time many of the discontented Jews consulting their ease their interest or their humour revolted to their worship when they had once made an appearance of a Church It was no new thing for the Jews to worship new Gods and then much more might they worship him after a new fashion Novelties were still delightful to this unstable people and they were always flexible to every evil way only stifnecked when they should return unto the truth But if their calling Jacob Father be not a sufficient proof that they were of the same Original with the Jews yet we may well judg they were Brethren by the wrongs they did one to another No enmity is so great as that between divided friends and as we observe in the Heavens so likewise upon Earth there is no direct opposition but between those Bodies which move in the same Line and have sometimes been in Conjunction and this was the case of the Jews and Samaritans there was such a perfect abhorrence betwixt them and the difference of their Religion little as it was in respect of other Nations bred such a distance and strangeness in their Conversation that though they slighted all the world besides yet they only hated one another The Jews accounted all Nations as strangers to them but the Samaritans as their enemies which shews that they looked not upon them as Proselytes to their Church but Apostates from their Communion Therefore there was no Neighbourhood or Correspondence amongst them which made the woman admire and say How is that thou being a Jew askest water of me who am a woman of Samaria For says the Evangelist The Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans And therefore the Samaritans refused to entertain our Saviour Because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem Those common civilites which Nature teaches us to shew unto all mankind were here denied and grown out of date because they were almost but not altogether of the same Religion En quo discordia cives Perduxit miseros 'T is strange that the worship of God which was designed to unite the minds of men and confirm the bonds of friendship should be taught to divide our hearts and set Brother against Brother That Religion which is the highest improvement of Nature should blot out our first Principles of love and make us forget our Natural Affections However a Jew may justifie himself in this obstinacy and hardness of heart yet certainly we have otherwise learned Christ 2. Therefore I proceed to shew our Saviours method of reconciling this difference And as a Preface thereunto we cannot chuse but admire this wonderful instance of his Humility how his Goodness here ushered in his Truth and by the tender expressions of his Love he made way for the power of his Reasons Here we find the God of Truth conversing with a Samaritan that lived in an Idolatrous errour the powers of Heaven and Earth condescending to the weakness of a woman and she a Harlot too living in Adultery though he was the perfection of all Vertue and Goodness Nevertheless foregoing all these inequalities and forgetting the Native quarrel of their Countries he friendly salutes her as if he were not a Jew or she were no Samaritan He friendly informs her who he was and confirms to her his Power by discovering the secrets of her heart at length being convinced that he was a Prophet she proposes to him the grand question in debate Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say that at Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship To this and to the whole controversie between them our Saviour makes answer in three distinct Heads 1. To the place of Worship 2. To the object of Worship 3. To the manner of Worship And 1. to the place the answer is The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father That is the time is coming when the worship of God shall not necessarily be confined either to the Temple of Jerusalem as it is at this day or to the mountain of Samaria as ye pretend but all places shall be indifferent unto God and it shall be lawful for all Nations to appoint unto themselves solemn places of worship without respect either to the Temple or the Mountain For while the promise was made only to Israel and his Seed there was a partition-wall between them and the Gentiles and their Sacrifices which were the types of that promise were confined to their own Land therefore their worship was particular and their Religion local being continually celebrated in one place Which place in former days whilst Israel was a Sojourning Nation was changeable at pleasure and removed with their tents Thus Jacob set up a Pillar and called it Bethel the House of God And for many Ages the Ark removed from house to house but when their Nation was settled in the Land of Canaan and God had chosen Sion for his habitation and his resting place then were all their Sacrifices consigned to the House of God which was built at Jerusalem according as he had foretold Deut. xii 5. But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your Tribes to put his name there even to his habitation shall ye seek and thither shall ye come and thither shall ye bring your burnt Offerings your Sacrifices and your Tithes Here we find a restraint put upon the liberty which the Nation formerly enjoyed and though Jacob set up an Altar and vowed to offer up his Tithes at Bethel yet now they would only be accepted at the Temple in Jerusalem and neither Prince nor people could separate themselves from the worship of that place as the Samaritans did without the guilt of disobedience and Schism Nevertheless our Saviour lays not this crime to their charge but tells them this dispute is now growing out of date The time is coming when the partition-wall shall be broken down and all Nations shall be equally admitted to the worship of God without any compliance to the Discipline of the Jewish Church which being