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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	let_v	people_n	praise_v	12,053	5	10.9906	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26785	The divinity of the Christian religion, proved by the evidence of reason and divine revelation by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1104; ESTC R33149	60,636	228

David by the same Inspiration in many Psalms celebrates the Kingdom of the Messiah In Psal. 22. he is introduc'd speaking My praise shall be of thee in the great Congregation all the ends of the World shall remember and turn unto the Lord all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee And in the 67 Psal. God be merciful to us and blessus and cause his Face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon Earth and thy saving health among all Nations Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee The Prophet Esay in his Revelations clearly speaks of the great design of God to bring the Gentiles to his service Thus in the second Chapter 't is prophesied And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the tops of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills And many People shall go and say Come ye let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Lord and the Sword of the Lord out of Jerusalem And among all the rest none is more clear and express than what is recorded in Isa. 49. There first the Messiah is represented as declaring his Commission from God to go to the People of Israel The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my Name and he said unto me Thou art my Servant in whom I will be glorified And after complains of the obstinacy of the ingrateful Synagogue Then I said I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with God And immediately after 't is added And now saith the Lord that form'd me from the Womb to be his Servant to bring Jacob again to him though Israel be not gather'd yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said it is a light thing that thou shouldst 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 ends of the Earth This Oracle is precise and full for it speaks of the Nations in opposition to the Tribes of Israel and directly foretels that the Jews would neglect the instructions of the Messiah and that upon their Infidelity God would by the Messiah give saving knowledge to all Nations And in the same sense he speaks in the 54th Chapter Sing O Barren thou that didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travel with Child for more are the Children of the desolate than of the married saith the Lord. Who is the desolate and barren but the Gentiles without God in the World whiles the Jews were honour'd and blest in the Mystical Marriage with him And who are the Children of the forsaken that should be far more numerous than those of the married but the Believers of the Christian Church in opposition to the Jewish Church And the other succeeding Prophets concur in this prediction Malachy the last speaks of it in such express terms as are capable to convince any that does not wilfully renounce the use of his Eyes and Understanding After God is introduc'd rejecting the Jews and their Temple Service I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts neither will I accept an Offering at your hands He adds to signifie the calling of a new Church for from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offer'd to my Name and a pure Offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Thus that great wonder was clearly foretold by the Prophets and as a work to be performed by the glorious Power of God And accordingly it is accomplish'd For who but God could have inspir'd the Apostles to undertake an Enterprise so contrary to Humane Prudence being equally dangerous and impossible And who else could have made it successful beyond all imagination When the Pride of Pharoah was humbled and his Strength broken by the most despicable creatures even the Magicians were compelled to acknowledge it to be the Finger of God but his Arm was revealed when the Spiritual Pharoah with all his Powers of Darkness were overcome by such weak Instruments What furious Winds from all parts of the World conspir'd to extinguish the first springing Light of the Gospel The Heathen Emperours destroyed innumerable Persons presuming to drown the Memory of Christ in the Blood of the Christians But such were the Faith and Love of Believers of all conditions to their Crucified Redeemer that with the same joy they ran to suffer the most terrible punishments as if they had been to receive Crowns In vain the strongest Combinations were made against the Truth For the knowledge of the only true God and his incarnate Son Jesus Christ overcame Impiety with all its Idols and Ignorance with all its numerous Masters What is become of all the Heathen Deities so honour'd so fear'd so obstinately defended Where are their Altars their Statues their Sacrilegious Priests and Sacrifices They are buried in the ruines of their own Temples in the darkness of eternal oblivion Where are all the Sects of Philosophers the Platonists the Peripateticks the Stoicks the Epicureans and the rest that fill'd Greece with their Fame and so many Volumes with their Fancies and Errour Like a Torrent that rouls down with great noise from the top of a Mountain so for a time the Speculations of their lofty Minds poured along in a floud of swelling froathy Eloquence but now and for how many Ages since the very channel is dryed up wherein they ran so that scarce any visible ruines remain in Athens it self of the Schools where they taught The greatest among them Plato adorn'd with the title of Divine could never see his Commonwealth fram'd by him with so much study to be establish'd in one City Whereas if we consider the Gospel of Christ 't is hard to determine whether the Doctrine be more simple or the Apostles the first Masters of it to outward appearance Yet without Learning or humane strength in a short space they triumphed over the Eloquence of the Greeks the Power of the Romans the Rage of Barbarous Nations They abrogated Laws chang'd Customs and renewed the face of the World In this the Prophetick Parable was fulfill'd The Kingdom of Heaven that is the dispensation of the Gospel is like to a grain of Mustard-seed one of the smallest grains but of that spirit and quality that it suddenly springs up and

Operations that are the express Characters of Gods hand which afford an infallible testimony of his approving it Before the coming of Christ into the World there were two sorts of Religions Gentilisme and Judaisme The first is utterly excluded upon the account of its gross and palpable contrariety to the Principles of sound Reason 1. By a fundamental error in the Object of Worship Idolatry then spread through all the Regions under both the Hemispheres Now 't is evident by Reason there is but one true God an Infinite Being the Maker and Governour of all things that has alone Divine excellencies in himself and a Divine Empire over us and consequently is alone worthy of Supreme Honour And what greater indignity can be offered to Him than the placing of Idols in His Throne He is a jealous God sensible and severe and will not suffer any partner in his Worship His Honour is eminently concern'd to vindicate His despised Deity 'T is a pittiful shift to alledg that they honoured their inferiour Gods with a lower and imperfect worship for all divine Worship is supreme and to be given only to the supreme God Besides what more debases Man than to consecrate the flower of his esteem and affections to unworthy Objects and many times to things wherein were no signs of Life much less any Ray of Divinity 'T is evident therefore that the numerous Sects of Superstition were involv'd in the most wretched ignorance of God and themselves And 't is observable that no quarrels were rais'd amongst the Heathens about the several Gods they worship'd For the Devil the irreconcileable Enemy to God's Glory and Man's Happiness was pleas'd with their deadly Errours Let them adore the Host of Heaven or of the Earth it was alike to him for they all diverted the minds of Men from the sole Object of Divine Worship the true God 2. Gentilism was equally culpable in the manner of Worship Those who made Gods to themselves ordained their service according to their fancies But the true God that made Man will be worshipped according to his own appointment Now if we consider that unintelligible variety of Religions amongst the Heathens we shall have reason to conclude that there is no instance wherein the excess of Man's native blindness and depravation is more astonishing than in the ways he has devised for the serving of God This will appear by taking a short general view of the ways of Worship in practice among the most learned and polite Heathens The Grecians and Romans had more Art and Improvement than the rest yet how frivolous and extravagant nay how impious were their solemn Mysteries The Eleusinia sacra the rites of Cybele the Floralia c. were mixtures of Folly and Filthiness Their Auguries by the flight of Birds their Presages by inspecting the Intrals of Beasts and the Smoak of the Incense were so fantastick that if one had design'd to invent things ridiculous without the least shew of Reason it had not been possible to exceed them They were very curious about Trifles and careless of real Vertue And what is more unworthy of God than to imagine that He is pleased with little sensless observances solemnly performed They were afraid to soil themselves with imaginary pollutions and insensible of the deepest defilements Their most sacred Mysteries were a covert for Uncleanness and under the mask of Religion the basest Villanies were disguised But I will not rake in those sinks of filthiness Now what is more impious than to imagine that God is pleased with the most sordid Lusts that cannot be nam'd without violating Modesty nor thought of without defiling the Mind with their infamous Ideas But 't is no wonder that such pollutions were esteemed Religious Rites for they attributed to their Gods such actions as were most unworthy a vertuous Man The Poets were the chief Doctors in their Church Their tales of the Rapes and Incests and secret Amours of their reputed Deities were the rule of their Faith And what a pernitious influence this kind of belief had upon them and how dishonourable it was to their Gods the wiser sort then discover'd It was Cicero's just censure of Homer that whereas he should have raised up Earth to Heaven instructed Men to live according to the purity of the Gods he forc'd down Heaven to Earth and made the Gods to live like Men in this Region of impurity 'T is the highest Glory of Man to be made the Image of God in moral excellencies and 't is the vilest contumely to God to fashion him to be the Image of Mans vicious affections Add further that Man was a sinner and under the righteous displeasure of Heaven all were compell'd to acknowledge by the Stings of Conscience But what miserable work has been made from the ignorance and guilty fears of the Heathens to render the Deity propitious is manifest in several instances and especially in their cruel sacrifices of Men. This was their practise in extream dangers to purge their Cities and avert Divine Judgments As if some eminent acts of Sin had the vertue of expiation In short the design of Religion is to procure the favour of God and to sanctifie Man both which are necessary in order to his Blessedness but how in sufficient Gentilism was for these great effects is manifest Nay on the contrary such a prodigious mixture of folly and wickedness makes it sadly evident that the variety of Religions among the Heathens were but several ways of dishonouring God and perishing for ever It is further to be observed that the Philosophers of greatest reputation admir'd as Oracles of more than humane Wisdom did not cure these destructive evils They should have exprest an Heroic Magnaminity to which they vainly pretended in resisting the dreadful torrent of Idolatry that everflowed the World But they basely temporiz'd with the vulgar Heathen 'T was their declared Principle that a wise Man should follow the Religion of his Country and conform in his external practice with establisht customs if he reserv'd his mind free for Philosophy Thus they extinguish'd the most radiant beam of the Deity and rob'd him of his most glorious Attribute the Unity of his Essence And by this we may judge how unfit they were to instruct and correct the degenerate World and make it truly better when they suffer'd Religion the fountain of all Vertues to be corrupted and the Worship of the only true God the prime and chief part of Piety to be given not only to inferiour objects but to evil Spirits Miserable Physicians whose care was applied to redress some lesser evils that concern'd Societies and neglected this mortal wound in the Heart 'T is a killing aggravation of their connivance and compliance with ignorant Idolaters that they held the truth in unrighteousness and when they knew God they glorified Him not as God but chang'd the Glory of his Incorruptible Nature into an Image made like to corruptible Man and Birds and four-footed