Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	creed_n	2,605	5	10.2206	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74698	Logoi Ōraioi. Three seasonable sermons the first preach't at St. Mary's in Cambridge, May 31. 1642. The others designed for publick auditories, but prevented. / By Tho. Stephens, M.A.	Stephens, Thomas, fl. 1648-1677.	1660 (1660)	Thomason E1839_2; ESTC R210165	57,540	136

Prayer and a Creed to the succeeding Church Nay the very Canon of holy Scripture must wait for approbation in their corner Synodals or else be no longer Canonicall Blest Saviour thou didst once extort a Confession together with the blood of the Apostate Julian that his wounds open'd their mouthes with a Vicisti Gallilaee now Christ thou hast the upper hand Arise O God plead thine Own cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee dayly forget not the voice of thine enemies the presumption of them that hate thee increaseth ever more and more For Micahs dispencing holy Orders to his Son alas we can spare that Labour there is a rank smell of Popery breath'd out of the very name of Orders Orders do suppose distinctions We can be every man his own Priest witness our Anabaptists the new sprung sect of Sebaptists and our other Familists we can pray for our selves instruct our selves Baptize our selves bless our selves curse our selves and what you will Dii talem terris avertite pestem And yet perhaps if some young Levite with a lusty voice will take ten shekels and a suit of Cloaths he may be put into imployment Pudeat dicere Academici ex nobis nostra est perditio the Vipers which have eaten through the bowels of the Church are our own off-springs These creep into the Pulpit God knows from whence as some customary birds at the time of the year into hollow trees where out of zealous ignorance they dare declaim against all Authority as Antichristian all antiquity as heretical all moral-learning as in it self damnable which I confess is the best plea for their own ignorance The old Egyptians in their Hieroglyphical Characters made the Hyaena a Symbol of Heresie which beast if we believe Aristotle had the power to blinde the Shepheards and make the Dogs dumb then counterfeiting the Pastors voice the simple Sheep came at their call and so were devoured by them whether Natures Store-house have furnished the World with such a traiterous brood of creatures I will not here determine But I am sure Religion has found too many of them They creep into Congregations and blind the eyes of the Lawful Pastors and perhaps have insinuated so farr into the hearts of the Assembly that they make him dumb too he may not be heard to speak his Bells are crackt his Pomegranates have lost their Savour These are the only Spokesmen and that so lowd that the spies that travell by may hear them but the poor sheep which dance attendance to their deceitfull voice escape well if they lose nothing but their fleeces Our Saviour Christ in 23 Math. 14. gives us intimation of such as upon a pretence of long prayers devour Widdows houses I doubt the woe comes down to these times I 'me sure the Levite here with Micahs Religion had packed away Micahs Estate too if we look narrower to it for that 's the poor Mans complaint in the 24. Verse of the 18. Chapter that he had no more left and how many sad stories teach us when Souls and bodies Goods and Goodness Estates and Religions have been shipwrack'd altogether Well Micahs story that 's made up and in all this we have done that which it right in our own eyes Next come the Danites where I shall not apply the circumstances there is too much envy would wait upon them But I am sure we have Zorahs and Eshtaols enough factious Towns and Cities which can furnish us with a tumultuous brood of discontented Brethren which think their borders are too straight they must let out their appetites and make more room for their active souls And if Micah have a solitary house upon mount Ephraim in the way let him take heed of pillaging the suspition of an Idol within his doors will be enough co confiscate all his goods and gold too to this Exchequer And truly if their Insolency be not curbed I beleeve they will discover many unknown Idolaters Scarce a Goldsmiths shop shall be past by but some graven Image shall be found in it to make it a lawful booty But if the severity of the Law do restrain such private Burglaries yet Gods house is sure to go to it There be Idols in the Temple that 's watch-word enough for a riotous Assembly force open the Doors break down the Windows let the spies enter and the armed men keep the passage but once in t is not the Altar and Rails will serve them no the Vestry the Library yes the poor mans box shall be suspected to have a golden Image in it Nay there is no place secure there is an Idoll in the Desk away with the book of Common-prayer teare it to pieces There is an Idoll in the Pulpit too or rather the Priest of Idolls hale him pull him out tear off the sacred Vestments from his superstitious shoulders The Ephod and the Teraphim will not suffice the Surplice and the Hood Cherubims and Seraphins must all away nay the very stones of the pavement shall be torne up because men kneel upon them Thus O God do they break down the carved works of thy house with axes and Hammars The Prophet David in that Psalm of Lamentations where he drops as many tears from his eyes as letters from his pen for the Desolation of the Sanctuary Psal 94. complains of the havock those unruly bands had made in the midst of the Congregations And the Septuagint Copies whether upon a Mistake in the first transcribing or of set purpose I know not render that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of burning his Synagogue they say they will forbid his Festivals And sure between those two there is a most near relation No readier gap laid open for the neglect of Gods Sabbaths then the prophanations of his Holy Temples If the Beauty of holinesse once be lost there will be very few that will continue Saitors to it Set a cheap price upon Religion and it will find but few Customers Yet who shall be the Ring-leader to this furious rout but the young Levite who had covenanted to be Micah's servant His voice at first call'd in the Spies to search the house and now is the joyfullest man to be in the midst of the Assembly How many cursed Chams hath our Church found quae tanquam sorex suo periit indicio such who are the readiest to discover their Parents nakedness such who being Hirelings and not true Shepheards as our Saviour calls them John 10. enter not by the door but climbe in some other way the same are thieves and robbers Nor yet will this Levite forsake his Golden Gods he hoped I believe ere long to have some limb or other of his Idoll stamp'd into lesser pieces and gingle in his pocket His Mr. Micah was but a private man and ten shekells but a poor reward for the hazarding of his Soul but if a Tribe of Israel will entertain him choose their Religion hee 'l be

Law requir'd against adultery that he makes honourable provision for her more easie and speedy return there is a couple of Asses with bread and wine and provender himself and a servant to attender her After some complementall interchanges of courtesie with his Father-in-law he begins his journey homeward Whilst the Sun shaming to behold the barbarous act of the Gibeonites sets upon him Well Gibeah he enters when the courtesie of the inhabitants affoorded him the high way for his lodging place where the Earth might be his bed and the Heavens his Canopie for what should a Man of God do in a house of one of these Sons of Belial And this is the portion of honest Levites The young Fellow in the last story that mouth'd it so well that his voice might be known at distance found better entertainment at Micah's hand Once sell your Conscience and you may soon buy Respect You need not be a Priest to Idols as he was the People will make an Idoll of you fall down and worship you It happens that a poor old labouring man a sojourner there among them a stranger it seems to them but more to their incivility as he returned home from the field spied these new guests of their city He hails to them friendly invites them to his homely cottage and courteously imbraces them When after provision of such simple delicates as his not curious palate had provided for himself they chear themselves in the freest expressions of loving souls But their mirth is soon blasted The noyse of violence is a Voyder to the Feast The house is beset by Incubusses those hot Devils will not be cooled unless the Stranger be given out to satiate their lusts We may wonder no longer why they were no freer to entertain him in their houses since we finde by experience that they exposed him in the streets that they might the more easily expose him to their injuries Well to avoid this nefandum this unheard of wickedness a less mischief is imbraced his Concubine is offered up as a Sacrifice to those Divels whom they ravish nay ravish her to death These were the acts which were so good in their own eyes Idolatry in Families Burglary in Counties Rapes in Cities and all these because there was no King in Israel And good reason for it For first a King amongst them would Secondly none but a King could curbe such licentious practises he would I say for he is the Minister of God which beareth not the sword in vain Rom. 13. He is Gods avenger and executes his wrath on evill doers It is the cowardly nature of sin that it flies away from the Magistrate though it be gathered into a Troop like a heard of deer from a bearded Lion Like the Lacedaemonian Servants who durst not adventure themselves after they had made a rebellious head into their Masters presence although they came armed with nothing but switches in their hands and this whether their inward guilt affright them or Gods mark on his Anointed charme them to obedience 'T was quivering Orestas reply in Euripides before his fault was published to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what feavour shakes thee ' oh 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't was a cold fit of conscience which would end in a burning fit of hell And I am perswaded that it was something more then our Saviour Christs Divinity which amazed that band Soldiers with their cursed Captain Judas when they came to take him John 18. that they went backward and fell to the ground Something more I say For should he have called his Divine Power to assist him he might have commanded ten thousand of Legions of Angels to have rescued him nor would he the second time so freely have offered himself into their hands Then for the other God hath bestowed upon all Magistrates an especiall Character to secure them from any dangerous conspiracies Touch not mine annointed say's David Chro. 1.16 my Messias saith the Original as if the brow of Majesty were the nearest draught the liveliest representation of Almighty God from hence they were honoured in the purest times by the best Christians with such appellations as did befit their greatness their words divalis jussio the audible voice of God their presence sacravestigia the clearest footsteps of the Diety But then secondly no other Estate or order could at least could so well suppress such daring impieties de facto we find they did not not that they wanted an establisht form of Government for we cannot believe that God would leave his People destitute An interregnum of Judges here we find from Sampsons death to Samuel But High-Priests still contiuned Yet what power had they when Corahs infection like Pliny's seeds kept many ages in the ground before they sprout began now to grow again and every Micah durst dispence his holy Orders and consecrate a Priest of his own good enough for a Religion of his own inventing And for their Judges had they at that time injoy'd them whether Evill Success under them or Cruel Oppression by them had so alienated the peoples mindes that in the very next generation Sam. 1.8 finding Samuel sons turning aside after lucre and taking bribes and perverting judgment they with one mouth cry out for a King for a King in Israel which might appoint every man to do that which is right not in their own eyes but in the eyes of God Let us now make Israel our looking glass and compare both our Estates and Actions together that thus laying these two crooked lines together we may between them draw a right one a right one not as we our selves but as our Overseers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those which watch over us shall determine First where have we any City nay any Street nay almost any Family where Micah and his Mother private Spirits have not set up their Idols their new stamped divinity which Proteus-like changes shapes so oft that two dayes old 't is grown out of knowledg Error I have heard ere now compared to Hydra that monster with a hundred heads but still the crown of truth was constancy the Eldest Daughter of Almighty God and so took place from her Fathers titles and she was alwaies one and the same But sure in these dayes she hath either degenerated into error or borrowed so much of the nature of it as that shee 's as various as the minds of those which are the assertors of her and as Micahs Idols are here raised out of that stock which he first stole from his Mothers coffers the mint of our Religions most commonly are some old wifes traditions which new molten and new moulded work so deep an impression in our credulous souls that they justle out the most solemn devout essentiall divine parts of our service of God Blasphemous wretches I tremble to speak what these ears have heard who durst accuse our Saviour of indiscretion and his Apostles of presumption for leaving two such Legacies a