Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	doctrine_n	popery_n	4,964	5	10.7046	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85887	A treatise of prayer and of divine providence as relating to it. With an application of the general doctrine thereof unto the present time, and state of things in the land, so far as prayer is concerned in them. Written for the instruction, admonition, and comfort of those that give themselves unto prayer, and stand in need of it in the said respects. By Edvvard Gee, minister of the gospel at Eccleston in Lancashire.	Gee, Edward, 1613-1660.	1653 (1653)	Wing G451; Thomason E1430_1; ESTC R209520	284,427	526

list do so likewise And how general is if not the committance yet the contagion of Idolatry when as some practise it others plead for its freedom others argue for it as no Idolatry others connive at it and let it alone and others work underhand for its further impunity That which the Prophet utters by way of description and reproof of the impiety of the Heathen Nations Micah 4.5 All people will walk every one in the name of his God is now owned and voted for by many and they say Let all people or they should walk every one in the name of his god and further besides the gross or corporal sort of Idol-worship or adoring either Images the work of mens hands or Creatures the work of Gods hands there are two other kinds of Idolatry and they are both among us There is the Idolatry of the brain and the Idolatry of the heart The Idolatry of the brain to wit the entertaining of Antitheistical notions or conceits of God or the seting up of such figments in the understanding of God as are directly opposite to that divine Nature and Personality or distinction of subsistence as is revealed unto us in the Word of God to be the object of our faith and worship And the Idolatry of the heart that is Covetousness for this sin the Apostle brandeth for Idolatry * Col. 3 5. Ephes 5 5 Vide Drusius in Hos 12.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we Ephes 4.19 translate greediness Vide Bez. in loc presertim Dan. Heusii excercit lib 10 c 4 l. 13. c. 2 And Mr Leigh's Crit. Sacr. in vocab And we must understand the term is of a larger extent then our ordinary sence of the word Covetousness reacheth unto for it signifieth an over-greedy desire prosecution and use of any earthly thing and so may include in it ambition intemperance luxury or any other inordinacy as well as the love of mony or worldly wealth and particularly it signifies that satisfying or accomplishment of any corrupt lust which is brought about by violence treachery or breach of Covenant Now who will not confess that the Land is full of this Idolatry or can say that ever any Age or Country equalled or more abounded with this kind of Idolatry and Worship then this of ours Here is Covenant breaking and especially with or in the matters of God I think I may confidently say Never any Nation scarce Israel it self in Moses time or after hath so generally publ●quely solemnly sacredly and reiteratedly bound themselves to or in the th ngs of God as hath this with our neighbor Nation and never did any so quickly so universally in regard of things so professedly so constantly with such self justifying and so hypocritically or under a pretence of acting from and for God violate their bonds unto him as multitudes have done among us Did ever any people lift up their hands so high unto God in swearing performance of all religious and humane Duties and defence and advancement of all sacred and civil Rights and presently let down their hands so low when it came to execution yea and lifted them up so high against the very things which they swore for as many in England have done We have multiplyed Oaths and studied for the most solemn express and strict forms of declaring and binding our selves as if we would constrain both God and all the world to beleeve and build upon our word most surely and as if we would make it unimaginable and impossible that we should break but after all this there are men found that have gone to work in the matters of the Oaths and Covenants as if the direct contrary to what was the subject of their Oaths had been the things they had undertaken and tyed themselves unto and as if all that they did in entering into those Obligations and in their proceedings afterward had been out of a study to make themselves and the Land as deeply guilty as they could both against God and man of Oath and Covenant-violation Who so shall but look back if a remembrance thereof now may be offenceless upon the Vow and Protestation of the year 1641. and the League and Covenant of the year 1642. and therein take notice to let all other things pass of what was vowed protested covenanted and sworn by the generality of this Nation in one or other or both of those bonds in relation to God What maintenance and defence of the true reformed Protestant Religion against all Popery and Popish Innovations and what endeavor of the punishment of all the Actors to the contrary what endeavor for the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland and for the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England and Ireland and that in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government in respect both to that Church and to these Kingdoms and for the Conjunction and Vniformity of the Churches of God in all the three Kingdoms in Religion c. and for the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness c. He I say that shall but think thereof and then cast his eye upon the universal indisposition and backwardness of the whole Nation to the making good of these things their lothness to expose or imploy any life power or estate for the same the late committance to otter oblivion and deep silence of all these Obligations their total desistance from and constant refusal of all these performances in whose hands it is publiquely to manage the same and their disenabling letting and discouraging them that would stir therein the declarings endeavors and exploits of many directly contrary to these clauses both to the downfall of what was to have been preserved restored or effected and to the reviving and flou●ishing of what was to have been extirpated and lastly the favour and help that hath been lent to the known Enemies of the Religion professed and covenanted for in all the said branches thereof and in their enmity against the same He I say again that shall revolve these things if he have any sense either of the things obliged to or the nature of the Obligation cannot chuse but sit down with some part of Ezra's astonishment and heaviness conceived upon the sin of some of his people in the point of anti-federal marriages And as to the purpose in hand in stead of wondering what is become of all the prayers that have been put up for England he may admire what shall become of England and of them that have made it and themselves so guilty in this matter For this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim Lam 5.17 Here is Religion abused unto carnal ends and that very commonly plainly and grosly Religion hath been for a long time universally embraced and pretended to in England There have of late been many proceed ngs taken in hand about it yea it hath been one thing which men have held forth and made

will punish your Idolatry by abandoning your daughters and daughters in law to infamous and unbridled lust which shall not be repressed by the Laws or Magistrates punishments nor corrected by 〈◊〉 Diodate The which is to be understood as well of the Lords dissolving the force of Laws and the Magistrates power and proceedings as of hs withdrawing his own preventing grace and withholding his castigations by which the women might be restrained from those crimes and this he declareth as the punishment of the adulterers license which the parents or husbands of those women took to themselves and permitted to others in matters of Worship and Religion Now how is Reformation minded with us In special how is it in relation to the house of God For Superiors is it not wholly professedly inexorably layd aside by them It is if I much mistake not For Inferiors men are generally unwilling impatient of coming under any Rule either of Confession of Faith or of Worship or of Government There was erewhile nothing but disputing for and against this and that way of Discipline and there was eager contention each party for the advancement of their frame of Government but now men are generally agreed to let all alone and to be without any at all and to leave off all settlement in Religion And this is the issue which the Tempter certainly aimed to bring it unto when Reformation was first moved in and he stirred up so many Commotions and particularly such a multitude of Sects and Civil Interests to stickle in it And there are two things which make our irreformedness exceeding abominable and therefore very forcible against our prayers 1. We are they that lately drew near to God very solemnly in Prayer Fasting Oaths and Covenants for Reformation of Religion Now it is a most desperate thing and so no doubt it will be found for men to dally with God in a work of this nature for men to seek God and swear by him for Reformation and then to reject and stand against it How should God hear our prayers when we our selves hinder them How should he not deny them when we our selves deny them How should he answer them when we contradict them If we make voyd our Prayers and Covenants for his Interest we are impudent unto stupidity if we look for any thing but frustration in the remainder of our suits Exod. 19.8 24.3 7. Heb. 9.18 Deut. 5.27 Exod. 32 33. Israel at Mount Sinai hears and receives the Law from Gods own mouth they make a Covenant with him for its performance dedicated with blood they desire Moses to go up into the Mount unto God to hear receive and bring them down all that the Lord would speak and they would hear and do it but after this ere Moses could return and ere forty days were expired they set up gods of their own handy work and a worship of their own devising and this made that heavy breach betwixt God and them for which they payed so dear and were so long remembered This was that which heightened Judahs sin and desolation even their universal seeking and covenanting with God and beginning to act for Reformation under Josiah and their as general Apostacy under Zedekiah And this was that which brought that fearful ruine of the Jewish State and of Jerusalem by the Roman after Christs time They generally professed repentance and embraced the Baptism of it by John Mat 3.5 Mark 1.5 Luke 7.29 but they falsified herein turning to persecute and crucifie Christ to withstand and infest his Apostles and to reject his Gospel These patterns sadly speak to us at this day who have done the like to them 2. We have let slip yea thrust away the opportunity of Reformation when it served Formerly the Court and the Bishops bore the blame of the irreformedness of the Church and Nation of latter days the Malignants and Wars were urged as the impediments of it but since these blocks have been removed and a full opportunity hath been put into their hands who before cryed and petitioned to God and man for it and I cannot but say if I must say the truth in their hands it hath miscarryed the fairest opportunity that ever Nation had and that under the strongest engagements to it hath miscarryed nothing wanted but hearts to use it One part hath failed through remissness in it and over-much eying other interests inferior to it and another part hath actively withstood and put it back opposing all conclusions and agreements towards it kindling new flames yea traversing and confounding their own principles councels and courses rather then not interrupt it Here is irreformedness to a height if not a non-ultra This is a Lamentation O England and shall be for a Lamentation But I will insist no further on the sins in or about our prayers I wil also here omit the above-named modal aggravations of our sins having purposely for brevities sake taken them or the most of them in as I have gone over the heads already touched This shall serve for the noting out the Reasons on our part viz. the meritorious Causes or provoking sins for which the Lord now hideth himself from his peoples prayers For the other sort of Reasons to wit the final Causes or the Ends which the Lord may have to accomplish upon us or others thereby It is not fit or expedient that I descend unto the particulars thereof by way of positive assertion as to say it is for this or that special end It may suffice that I have gathered out of Scripture and layd down in one series those several ends for which the Lord declareth to hide himself from his peoples prayers and that further I hear annex these two things 1. As it is not to be doubted but that the Lord hath a peculiar people in England yea such as are his not only by external calling and profession but according to the Election of grace and that have a sanctifying and saving interest in him and his promises so questionless he hath these or some of these ends to bring forth in or unto them by his present hiding himself from their prayers and in especial from those prayers which they have and do still dayly put up to him for the publique concernments of the Church of Christ and in particular for those of England They are of many kinds some of them he may in their determinate import never grant others of them he doth delay Those which he may finally deny his end towards them which he may I suppose I may without presumption say he doth aim at and will accomplish thereby is both to prevent the evil which by their obtaining those petitions might ensue to them and to provide for and procure their greater good Those which he doth for a time delay his intent and drift we may conceive and conclude certainly in that delay is to bring to pass thereby some of those Ends if not all which have been