Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	worship_n	year_n	zeal_n	23	3	7.5246	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60942	Interest deposed, and truth restored, or, A word in season, delivered in two sermons the first at St. Maryes in Oxford, on the 24th of July, 1659, being the time of the assizes : as also of the fears and groans of the nation in the threatned, and expected ruin of the lawes, ministry, and universityes : the other preached lately before the honourable Societie of Lincolns-Inn / by Robert South ...	South, Robert, 1634-1716.; South, Robert, 1634-1716. Ecclesiasticall policy the best policy.	1660 (1660)	Wing S4733; ESTC R4025	42,795	62

that will not be convinced what a help this is to the Magistracy would find how considerable it is if they should chance to clash this would certainly eat out the other For the Magistrate cannot urge obedience upon such potent grounds as the Minister if so disposed can urge disobedience As for instance if my Governour should command me to doe a thing or I must dye or forfeit my Estate and the Minister steps in and tells me that I offend God and ruine my soul if I obey that command it 's easie to see a greater force in this perswasion from the advantage of its ground And if Divines once begin to curse Meros we shall see that Levi can use the Sword as well as Simeon and although Ministers doe not handle yet they can employ it This shews the imprudence as well as the danger of the Civil Magistrates exasperating those that can fire mens consciences against him and arme his Enemies with Religion For I have read heretofore of some that having conceived an irreconcileable hatred of the Civil M●gistrate prevailed with men so farre that they went to resist him even out of conscience and a full perswasion and dread upon their spirits that not to doe it were to desert God and consequently to incurre damnation Now when mens rage is both heightned and sanctified by Conscience the War will be fierce for what is done out of Conscience is done with the utmost Activity And then Campanella's Speech to the King of Spain will bee found true Religio semper vicit praesertim Armata Which sentence deserves seriously to be considered by all Governours and timely to be understood lest it comes to be Felt. 2. If the safety of Government is founded upon the truth of Religion then this shews the danger of any thing that may make even the true Religion suspected to be false To be false and to be thought false is all one in respect of men who act not according to Truth but Apprehension As on the contrary a false Religion while apprehended true has the force and efficacy of truth Now there is nothing more apt to induce men to a suspition of any Religion than frequent innovation and change For since the object of Religion God the subject of it the soul of man and the businesse of it Truth is alwayes one and the same Variety and Novelty is a just presumption of Falsity It argues sickness and distemper in the minde as well as in the body when a man is continually turning and tossing from one side to the other The wise Romans ever dreaded the least Innovation in Religion Hence we find the advice of Mecanas to Augustus Caesar in Dion Cassius in the 52 Book where hee counsels him to detest and persecute all Innovators of divine Worship not onely as contemners of the Gods but as the most pernicious disturbers of the State For when men venture to make changes in things sacred it argues great boldness with God and this naturally imports little belief of him which if the people once perceive they will take their Creed also not from the Magistrates Law but his example Hence in England where Religion has been still Purifying and hereupon almost alwaies in the Fire and Furnace Atheists and Irreligious persons have took no small advantage from our changes For in King Edward the sixts time the Divine Worship was twice altered in two new Liturgies In the first of Queen Mary the Protestant Religion was persecuted with Fire and Faggot by Law and publick counsel of the same persons who had so lately established it Upon the coming in of Queen Elizabeth Religion was changed again and within a few daies the publick Council of the Nation made it death for a Priest to convert any man to that Religion which before with so much eagerness of Zeal had been restored So that it is observed by an Author that in the space of twelve years there were four changes about Religion made in England that by the publick Councill and Authority of the Realm which were more than were made by any Christian state throughout the world in fifteen hundred years before Hence it is that the Enemies of God take occasion to blaspheme and call our Religion Statisme and now adding to the former those many changes that have hapned since J am afraid we shall never be able to claw off that name Nor though we may satisfie our own consciences in what we professe to repell and cleare off the objections of the rational world about us which not being interested in our Changes as we are will not judge of them as we judge but debate them by impartiall Reason by the Nature of the thing the generall Practise of the Church against which New Lights suddain Impulses of the Spirit Extraordinary Calls will be but weak arguments to prove any thing but the madnesse of those that use them and that the Church must needs wither being blasted with Inspiration We see therefore how fatall and ridiculous Innovations in the Church are And indeed when Changes are so frequent it is not properly Religion but Fashion This J think we may build upon as a sure ground that where there is continuall Change there is Uncertainty and Uncertainty in Religion is a sufficient reason if not to deny yet to doubt of its Truth Thus much for the first Doctrine J proceed now to the second viz. That the next and most effectuall way to destroy Religion is to Embase the Teachers and Dispencers of it In the handling of this J shall shew 1. How the Dispensers of Religion the Ministers of the Word are embased or rendred vile 2. How the Embasing or Vilifying them is a means to destroy Religion 1. For the first of these the Ministers and Dispencers of the Word are rendred base or vile two waies 1. By devesting them of all Temporall Priviledges and Advantages as inconsistent with their Calling It is strange since the Priests Office heretofore was alwaies Splendid and almost Regall that it is now looked upon as a piece of Religion to make it low and sordid So that the use of the word Minister is brought down to the signification of it a Servant for now to serve and to minister servile and ministeriall are termes equivalent But in the Old Testament the same word signifies a Priest and a Prince or cheif Ruler hence though wee translanslate it Priest of On 41 Gen. 45. and Priest of Midian 3 Exod. 1. and as it is with the People so with the Priest 24 Isa. 2. Iunius and Tremellius render all these places not by Sacerdos Priest but by Praeses that is a Prince or at least a chief Counsellour or Minister of State And it is strange that the Name should be the same when the Nature of the thing is so exceeding different The like also may be observed in other Languages that the most Illustrious Titles are derived from things Sacred and belonging to the Worship of

perill A Coward does not allwayes scape with disgrace but sometimes also he loses his life wherefore let all such know as can enlarge their consciences like Hell and call any sinfull compliance submission and style a Cowardly silence in Christs cause discretion and prudence I say let them know that Christ will one day scorn them and spit them with their policy and prudence into Hell and then let them consult how politick they were for a temporall Emolument to throw away Eternity All that causes men to deny Christ it is either the Enjoyments or the miseries of this life but alass at the day of Judgment all these will be expired and as One well Observes what are we the better for pleasure or the worse for sorrow when it is past but then sinne and guilt will be still fresh and Heaven and Hell will be then yet to Begin If ever it was seasonable to preach Courage in the despised abused cause of Christ it is now when his truths are Reformed into nothing when the hands and hearts of his faithfull Ministers are weakned even broke and his Worship extirpated in a mockery that his honour may be advanced Well to establish our hearts in duty let us before hand propose to our selves the worst that can happen Should God in his judgment suffer England to be transformed into a Munster Should the faithfull be every where Massacred Should the places of Learning be demolished and our Colledges reduced not only as One in his Zeal would have it to Three but to none Yet assuredly Hell is worse then all this and this is the Portion of such as deny Christ wherefore let our discouragements be what they will losse of Places losse of Estates loss of Life and Relations yet still this sentence stands ratified in Decretals of Heaven Cursed be that man that for any of these shall desert the truth and deny his Lord. ECCLESIASTICALL POLICY THE BEST POLICY OR RELIGION The best Reason of STATE In a SERMON delivered before the Honourable Society of LINCOLNES INN BY RO. SOVTH OXFORD Printed by A. L. for Tho. Robinson 1660. 1 King 13. ch 33 34. v. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evill way but made again of the lowest of the people Priests of the High places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests of the High places And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the Earth IEroboam from the name of a person become the character of impiety is reported to Posterity as eminent or rather notorious for two things Usurpation of Government and Innovation of Religion 'T is confessed the former is expresly said to have been from God but since God may Order and Dispose what he does not Approve and Use the wickedness of men while he forbids it the design of the First cause does not excuse the malignity of the second And therefore the Advancement and Scepter of Ieroboam was in that Sense onely the work of God in which it is said 3 Amos 6. that there is no evill in the City which the Lord has not done But from his attempts upon the Civill Power he proceeds to Innovate Gods Worship and from the subjection of mens Bodies and Estates to enslave their Consciences as knowing that true Religion is no freind to an unjust Title Such was afterwards the way of Mahomet to the Tyrant to joyne the Impostor and what he had got by the Sword to confirm by the Alcoran raising his Empire upon two Pillars Conquest and Inspiration Ieroboam being thus advanced and thinking Policy the best Piety though indeed in nothing ever more befooled the nature of sin being not onely to defile but to infatuate In the II. chap. and the 27. v. he thus argues If this people goe up to doe Sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people turne again unto their Lord even unto Rehoboam King of Iudah and they shall kill me and goe again unto Rehoboam King of Iudah As if hee should have said The true Worship of God and the converse of those that use it dispose men to a considerate lawfull subjection And therefore I must take another course my Practise must not be better than my Title what was won by Force must be continued by Delusion Thus sin is usually seconded with sin and a man seldome commits one sinne to please but he commits another to defend himself As 't is frequent for the Adulterer to commit Murder to conceal the shame of his Adultery But let us see Ieroboams politick procedure in the next ver Whereupon the King took counsel and made two Calves of Gold and said unto them it is too much for you to goe up to Ierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel As if he had made such an Edict I Ieroboam by the advice of my Council considering the great distance of the Temple and the great charges that poor people are put to in going thither as also the intollerable burden of paying the first fruit and tythes to the Priest have considered of a way that may be more easie and lesse burthensome to the people as also more comfortable to the Priests themselves and therefore strictly enjoyne that none henceforth presume to repaire to the Temple at Ierusalem especially since God is not tyed to any place or form of Worship as also because the Devotion of men is apt to be clogged by such Ceremonies therefore both for the ease of the people as also for the advancement of Religion we require and command that all henceforth forth forbear going up to Ierusalem Questionless these and such other Reasons the Impostor used to insinuate his devout Idolatry And thus the Calves were set up to which Oxen must be sacrificed the God and the Sacrifice out of the same Herd And because Israel was not to returne to Egypt Egypt was brought back to them that is the Egyptian way of Worship the Apis or Serapis which was nothing but the Image of a Calfe or Oxe as is clear from most Historians Thus Ieroboam having procured his people gods the next thing was to provide Priests Hereupon to the Calves he addes a Commission for the approving trying and admitting the Rascality and lowest of the people to minister in that service such as kept Cattel with a little change of their Office were admitted to make Oblations to them And doubtless besides the approbation of these there was a Commission also to eject such of the Priests and Levites of God as being too Ceremoniously addicted to the Temple would not serve Ieroboam before God nor worship his Calves for their Gold nor approve those two glittering sins for any reason of State whatsoever Having now perfected Divine Worship and prepared both Gods and Priests In the next place that he might the better teach his false Priests the way of

their new Worship he beginnes the Service himself and so countenances by his example what he had enjoyned by his command in the 1. v. of this chapter And Ieroboam stood by the Altar to burne Incense Burning of Incense was then the Ministerial Office amongst them as Preaching is now amongst us So that to represent you the nature of Ieroboams Action It was as if in a Christian Nation the chief Governour should authorize and encourage all the scumme and refuse of the people to Preach and call them to the Ministry by using to Preach and invading the Ministerial Function himself But Ieroboam rested not here but while he was busie in his work and a Prophet immediately sent by God declares against his Idolatry he endeavours to seize upon and commit him in the 4. v. He held forth his hand from the Altar and said lay hold of him Thus we have him compleating his sinne and by a strange Imposition of hands persecuting the true Prophets as wel as ordaining false But it was a natural transition and no wayes wonderful to see him that stood affronting God with false Incense in the right hand persecute with the left and abet the Idolatry of one Arme with the Violence of the other Now if we lay all these things together and consider the parts rise and degrees of his sinne we shall find that it was not for nothing that the Spirit of God so frequently and bitterly in Scripture stigmatizes this person For it represents him first incroaching upon the Civil Government thence changing that of the Church debasing the Office that God had made sacred introducing a false way of Worship destroying the right And in this we have a full and fair description of a foul thing that is of an Usurper and an Impostor or to use one word more comprehensive than both of Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat who made Israel to sinne From the Story and Practise of Ieroboam we might gather these Observations 1. That God sometimes punishes a Notorious sinne by suffering the sinner to fall into a worse Thus God punished the Rebellion of the Israelites by permitting them to fall into Idolatry 2. There is nothing so absurd but may be obtruded upon the Vulgar under pretence of Religion Certainly otherwise a Golden Calfe could never have been made either the Object or the means of Divine Worship 3. Sin especially that of perverting Gods Worship as it leaves a guilt upon the Soul so it perpetuates a blot upon the Name Hence nothing so frequent as for the Spirit of God to expresse wicked irreligious Kings by comparing them to Ahab or Ieroboam It being usuall to make the first and most eminent in any kind not onely the Standard for Comparison but also the Rule of Expression But I shall insist onely upon the words of the Text and what shall be drawn from thence There are two things in the words that may seem to require Explication 1. What is meant by the High places 2. By the Consecration of the Priests 1. Concerning the High places The use of these in the Divine Worship was generall and ancient And as Dionysius Vossius observes in his Notes upon Moses Maimonides the first way that was used long before Temples were either built or thought lawfull The reason of this seemes to be because those places did not shut up or confine the Immensity of God as they thought an house did and withall gave his Worshippers a nearer approach to heaven by their Height Hence we read that the Samaritanes worshipped upon Mount Gerezim 4 Ioh. 20. v. And Samuel went up to the High place to sacrifice 1 Sam. 9.14 And Solomon sacrificed at the High place in Gibeon 1 King 3.4 Yea the Temple it selfe was at length built upon a Mount or High place 2 Chr. 3.1 You will say then Why are these places condemned I answer that the use of them was not condemned as absolutely and alwaies unlawfull in it selfe but onely after the Temple was built and that God had professed to put his Name in that place and no other Therefore what was lawfull in the practice of Samuel and Solomon before the Temple was in being was now detestable in Ieroboam since it was constituted by God the onely place for his Worship To bring this Consideration to the times of Christianity Because the Apostles and Primitive Christians preached in houses and had onely private meetings in regard they were under Persecution and had no Churches this cannot warrant the practice of those now adaies that preferre Houses before Churches and a Conventicle before the Congregation 2. For the second thing which is the Consecration of the Priests it seems to have been correspondent to Ordination in the Christian Church Idolaters themselves were not so farre gone as to venture upon the Priesthood without Consecration and a Call To shew all the Solemnities of this would be tedious and here unnecessary The Hebrew word which we render to Consecrate signifies to fill the hand which indeed imports the manner of Consecration which was done by filling the hand for the Priest cut a peice of the Sacrifice and put it into the hands of him that was to be consecrated by which Ceremony he received right to Sacrifice and so became a Priest As our Ordination in the Christian Church is said to have been heretofore transacted by the Bishops delivering of the Bible into the hands of him that was to be ordained whereby he received power Ministerially to dispense the Mysteries contained in it and so was made a Presbyter Thus much breifly concerning Consecration There remains nothing else to be explained in the words I shall therefore now draw forth the sense of them in these two Propositions 1. The surest means to strengthen or the readiest to ruin the Civill Power is either to establish or destroy the Worship of God in the right exercise of Religion 2. The next and most effectuall way to destroy Religion is to Embase the Teachers and Dispensers of it Of both these in their order For the prosecution of the former we are to shew 1. The truth of the assertion that it is so 2. The reason of the assertion why and whence it is so 1. For the truth of it it is abundantly evinced from all Records both of Divine and Prophane History in which he that runs may read he ruine of the State in the Destruction of the Church and that not only portended by it as its Signe but also inferred from it as its Cause 2. For the Reason of the point it may be drawne 1. From the Judiciall proceeding of God the Great King of Kings and supreme Ruler of the Vniverse who for his commands is indeed carefull but for his Worship Jealous And therefore in States notoriously irreligious by a secret and irresistable power countermands their deepest Projects splits their Counsells and smites their most refined Policies with frustration and a curse being resolved that the Kingdomes of the

for they must know that it is one thing to undertake it for a reward and not to be willing to undertake it without one it is one thing to performe good workes only that we may receive the recompence of them in Heaven another thing not to be willing to follow Christ and forsake the world if there were no such recompence But besides suppose it were the duty of Scholars to chuse this calling in the mid'st of all its discouragements Yet a prudent governour who knowes it to be his wisdom as well as his duty to take the best course to advance Religion will not consider mens duty but their practice not what they ought to doe but what they use to doe and therefore draw over the best qualified to this service by such wayes as are most apt to perswade and induce men Solomon built his Temple with the Tallest Cedars and surely when God refused the defective and the maimed for sacrifice we cannot thinke that he requires them for the Priesthood When Learning Abilities and what is excellent in the world forsake the Church we may easily foretell its ruine without the gift of Prophesy And when ignorance succeeds in the place of Learning weakness in the roome of Judgment we may be sure Heresye and confusion will quickly come in the roome of Religion For undoubtedly there is no way so effectuall to betray the Truth as to procure it a weak Defender Well now instead of raising any particular Uses from the Point that has been delivered let us make a breif Recapitulation of the whole Government we see depends upon Religion and Religion upon the Encouragement of those that are to dispence and assert it For the further evidence of which truths we need not travell beyond our own Borders but leave it to every one impartially to Judge whether from the very first day that our Religion was unsettled and Church Government flung out of Doores the Civill Government has ever been able to fix upon a sure foundation We have been changing even to a Proverb The indignation of Heaven has been rolling and turning us from one form to another till at length such a Giddiness seazed upon Government that it fell into the very dreggs of Sectaryes that threatned an equall ruin both to the Minister and Magistrate And how the State has Symphathized with the Church is apparent For have not our Princes as well as our Preists bin of the lowest of the People Have not Coblers Draymen Mechanicks Governed as well as reached Nay have not they by Preaching come to Govern Was ever that of Solomon more verified that Servants have Rid while Princes and Nobles have gone on Foot But God has bin pleased by a miracle of mercy to dissipate this confusion and Chaos and to give us some openings some dawnings of Liberty and Settlement But now let not those that are to rebuild our Jerusalem thinke that the Temple must be built last For if there be such a thing as a God and as Religion as whether men beleive it or no they will one day find and feele assuredly he will stop our Liberty till we restore him his Worship Besides it is a senceless thing in reason to think that one of these Interests can stand without the other when in the very order of Naturall Causes Government is preserved by Religion But to return to Ieroboam with whom we first began He laid the foundation of his Government in destroying though doubtless he coloured it with the Name of Reforming Gods worship but see the issue Consider him Cursed by God maintaining his usurped title by continuall vexatious Warres against the Kings of Judah smote in his posterity which was made like the dung upon the face of the Earth as low and vile as those Preists whom he had imployed Consider him branded and made odious to all after ages And now when his Kingdome and glory was at an End and he and his Posterity rotting under ground and his Name stinking above it Judge what a worthy prize he made in getting of a Kingdome by destroying the Church Wherefore the summ of all is this to advise and desire those whom it may concern to consider Ieroboams punishment and then they will have little heart to Ieroboams sinne FINIS